Almost all Rush albums have many songs that have dense allusions to mystic
altered-state phenomena. I primarily cover early Rush albums, when they were
originally exploring this approach - Caress of Steel through Grace
Under Pressure.

I have not yet indicated which are the stronger, or "leading"
allusions and which are weaker, "following" allusions. The strategy
in this sort of analysis must be to brainstorm and overshoot. It is best to
think of an excess of mystic-state interpretations, and then later pick
the best ones.

My primary purpose with these annotations is not to explain the surface
layer of meanings, which is evident during the normal state of cognition. That
would be valuable, but my emphasis is on the occluded layer of meanings, the
layer that is revealed during the dissociative state of cognition. These two
layers are distinct, even if interdependent. I acknowledge the surface layer of
meanings, but emphasize the occluded layer. It is clear enough that on the
surface, "Bastille Day" is about the French Revolution,
"Countdown" is about a rocket take-off, "Red Barchetta" is
about a car, "No One at the Bridge" is about a ship, "Cygnus
X-1" is about a black hole, and "The Body Electric" is about an
android. Those are elementary explanations -- perhaps needed, but of little
interest. Those meanings should be instantly obvious to anyone who is paying
any attention at all. I am assuming that such analyses have already been taken
care of.

Perhaps I should take the time to spell out the surface meanings as well as
the occluded allusions, offering this site as the first complete and adequate
explanation of Rush lyrics in general. Analyses which are limited to just the
surface layer are shallow and have little to offer. I do need to take another
look at the couple of books which attempt to explain Rush lyrics -- but I
already looked at them and saw nothing more than "Song A is about B, song
C is about D", and so on. Such interpretations are shallow because they
are too easily satisfied; as soon as the first meaning is determined, the
analysis is declared complete. I do discuss the surface layer in some cases,
such as when it involves the philosophy of egoism. The "layer" idea
applies better to some songs than others.

In the Rush newsgroup, someone wrote "Does anyone know what the hell
this guy [egodeath.com] is talking about??"

Richard
wrote "Well, as a matter of fact I do. But then again, I am altered
even as I type this. Thank you [egodeath.com] for your post and the link; I
have been looking for just this kind of information for quite some time.
Thanks." -- ElectRick, trippin' for the night

>What exactly is the point of all your nonsensical discussions regarding
the lyrics of Rush?
>...
>I've read more of your discussion about Rush lyrics and have concluded that
you're either very intelligent or you're an idiot with a psychology book in
front of you and you're using as many psychology buzzwords as possible to put
forth the illusion that you're intelligent!

The status of my intelligence is not directly relevant to this subject.

It is widely thought that Rush is a philosophy/mysticism band, but a crucial
point for understanding the nature of this "philosophy" and
"mysticism" is that it is *acid*-mysticism.

The lyrics are crafted to lend themselves particularly well to carrying
subtle double-entendres alluding to common experiences of the LSD mystic
altered state. The result is a language of hidden reference, a systematic,
definable scheme of encoding and decoding of meaning. The acid lyricist writes
while on LSD, subtlely phrasing things in a way that suggests common LSD
experiences and perceptions. These allusions are not recognized except by
listeners who are also in the LSD mystic altered state. For example, "sea
spray blurs my vision, the waves roll by so fast, save my ship of freedom, I'm
lashed helpless to the mast" are publically understood to simply tell a
story of a sea voyage and a storm. But for those on LSD, the rather odd or
arbitrary phrasings are seen as referring, with a perfect fit (perfect beyond
the possibility of coincidence), to the common LSD experiences of perceptual
waving and of loss of the sense of free will.

Ego death is the most interesting phenomena in human experiencing and
warrants such research and explanation as my site puts forth.

There is no need for psychology buzzwords and high intelligence to experience
and explain this. Just a familiarity with Rush lyrics and common altered-state
experiences.

Different Stages shows Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson being hauled away from
the concert hall in a straightjacket, by orderlies wearing white. Compare the
cover of 5150, by Van Halen, showing the band in straightjackets. These album
covers both refer to the psychotomimetic effects of LSD.

The Holland version of this
album cover shows an eagle, representing liberty of the individual. The
regular cover shows an owl (representing being awake during an all-night trip).
I am surprised the owl does not have large pupils.

[This is pro-egoism as opposed to collectivism and an altruism which
condemns the value of the individual who gives to others. Contrast with later
songs that dwell on the problematic nature of ego and egoic self-control. For
more information, see Ego strengthening vs. ego
transcendence.]

Know your place in life is where you want to be
Don't let them tell you that you owe it all to me
Keep on looking forward; no use in looking 'round
Hold your head above the ground and they won't bring you down

Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind
A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind
We marvel after those who sought
New wonders in the world, wonders in the world,
Wonders in the world they wrought.

Live for yourself -- there's no one else
More worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will
Only cry out for more [compare Cinderella Man, in which "he held up his
riches to challenge the hungry"]

Well, I know they've always told you
Selfishness was wrong
Yet it was for me, not you, I
Came to write this song [here is a declaration of selfishness and a refusal of
the morality of altruisim (feeling one is morally obliged to hold oneself down
to altruistically help others)]

Ten score years ago, defeat the kingly foe [search "king"]
["kingly foe" would be either the dragonesque inner ego as false
controller-agent, or a control-agent who controls the Ground of Being which
gives rise to our every act of will and act of personal control]
A wondrous dream came into being
Tame the trackless waste, no virgin land left chaste [exploration and mapping
of mystic state; consciousness researchers as Magellan's]
All shining eyes, but never seeing [search "shining" and
"shining eyes"; it's a repeated motif for dilated eyes in altered
state]

Beneath the noble birth [allusion to kingship repeated later in Bastille
Day; search "king"]
Between the proudest words [the Ground of Being that produces the delusion of
egoic power eventually reveals the impotence of ego]
Behind the beauty, crack appear
Once, with heads held high
They sang out to the sky
Why do their shadows bow in fear? [ego-bowing theme repeated later in Bastille
Day, search "bow"]

The guns replace the plow, facades are tarnished now [possible allusion to
transgressive sacrifice and loss of moral-control stabilizer in the
dissociative state]
The principles have been betrayed [which principles? consider freedom, inner
personal government, cybernetics principles]
The dreams's gone stale, but still, let hope prevail [compare staleness of the
quest in Fountain of Lamneth]
History's debt won't be repaid [search "history"]

The tomb of Hades, lit by flickering torchlight
The nether world is gathered in the glare
Prince By-Tor takes the cavern to the north light
The sign of Eth is rising in the air.
By-Tor, knight of darkness, [note that in the song "The Necromancer",
"Prince By-Tor" is the champion, the savior, the good guy and
rescuer.]
Centurion of evil, devil's prince. [By-Tor here too is a prince - but a prince
of the devil.]

Across the River Styx, out of the lamplight [in ego death, cross river styx
into hades]
His nemesis is waiting at the gate
The Snow Dog, ermine glowing in the damp night
Coal-black eyes shimmering with hate. [allusion to dilated pupils]
By-Tor and the Snow Dog
Square for battle, let the fray begin.

The battle's over and the dust is clearing
Disciples of the Snow Dog sound the knell
Rejoicing echoes as the dawn is nearing
By-Tor in defeat retreats to Hell
Snow Dog is victorious
The land of the Overworld is saved again.

Why try? I know why
This feeling inside me says it's time I was gone [ego disappearance]
Clear head, new life ahead [rebirth]
I want to be king now, not just one more pawn [king ego, puppethood; but
actually one goes from feeling as a king to feeling as a puppet, in mystic
altered state]

Moonrise, thoughtful eyes
Staring back at me from the window beside [ecstasis (standing beside oneself),
dilated eyes, pure awareness is a higher vantage point to observe the mechanics
of ego-cognition]
No fright or hindsight [fear of loss of control]
Leaving behind that empty feeling inside [ego disappearance]

Start a new chapter, I find what I'm after
Is changing every day.
The change of a season's enough of a reason
To want to get away
Quiet and pensive, my thoughts apprehensive [apprehend/fear insights about
illusory nature of self-control]
The hours drift away
Leaving my homeland, playing a lone hand
My life begins today

_Caress of Steel_ is the most awe-inspiring album, because
it is the peak source of inspiration and impetus to the following albums. The
most important and noteworthy song from a historical and developmental
standpoint is "No One at the Bridge".

Which is the greatest and most worthy song on _Caress of Steel_? While
"Bastille Day" and "The Necromancer" deal with the
apprehension of mystic ego death, the first does so in the form of a warning or
prophecy, and the second does so in the form of a highly metaphorical adventure
fantasy. Only "No One at the Bridge" deals directly with the peak
experience of needing a divine rescuer. It's an appropriately doom-laden song
describing the first strong encounters with the self-destruction of the twisted
logic of self-control. All later descriptions of such encounters are less
engaged, lacking the immediacy of Discovery. "The Twilight Zone",
"Freewill", "The Enemy Within", and "The Body
Electric" are spoken from a stance which is so accustomed to the fatal
loss of the ego's power of will, that these later songs are sung as safe and
secure echoes of the original blast, which built up momentum on _Fly by Night_,
but exploded on _Caress of Steel_. The subsequent albums were reflections and
echoes of that highest blast of inspiration and forceful moment of revision of
the egoic worldview, the blast which is unmistakably represented by "No
One at the Bridge".

Acid allusions and philosophy of self-control cybernetics in Caress of Steel

The cask of '43 is an acid double-entendre, an allusion to LSD. Albert
Hofmann discovered and synthesized LSD in 1943 in Basil, Switzerland and Sandoz
Labs. To "draw another goblet" is to conduct another LSD session of
grappling with self-guidance power.

_Caress of Steel_ is packed with allusions to altered state phenomena:
o "take a piece of my mind"

o the waves roll by so fast (waves of perceptual distortion)
o save my ship of freedom, I'm tied helpless to the mast (freedom of will becomes
experienced as cancelled or impotent)

o my gaze is caught and I am held helpless mesmerized (or some such) -- an
allusion to the loss of power of self-steering, and sense of being trapped in a
vortex that leads inexorably to ego-death. This is *the* Zen feeling -- the
controlling-ego homunculus is caught in its own trap of logic.

o The entire story of the necromancer -- about being controlled externally
and experiencing your will as being out of your own control. "Stripped of
will and soul"
This is a standard LSD experience. This theme would hardly occur to an
unexperienced lyrist.

o The loss of the ability for self-steering in "No One at the
Bridge" (detailed in my long Rand, Satanism, Rush posting).

The extremely artistic melancholy of manic depression is another standard
effect of LSD - recall Hendrix's song "Manic Depression" on the
important acid rock album, _Are You Experienced?_

While "everyone has their own interpretation" sounds fine and
democratic, I am the only person who *has* and puts forth a *highly
structured*, explicit, and definite interpretation... I am the only one who
claims that there *is* a single, definite, underlying theme: Rush lyrics are,
above all, double-entendres and allusions to the highest human experiences: the
standard, mystic altered-state phenomena, that naturally connect to the core of
religion, philosophy, and psychology.

These lyrics are open to interpretation, but there is a dimension or layer
of the lyrics that contains a *definite* allusion. This is a brilliant mastery
of meaning, the way the lyrics are simultaneously about the surface topic,
*and* are generally, poetically open, *and* -- I'm pointing out -- share a
consistent theme. These 3 strands of interpretation are distinct and separable
- each can stand on its own.

This suggests a system or philosophy of interpreting poetry. The ancient
Greeks felt that the highest artform is music, meaning music with lyrics. I
agree, and Rush is unsurpassed in the height of their lyrical achievement -
their cleverness of encoding layers of meaning that reveal themselves, some
layers more freely than others.

The experience of ego death is a temporary experience, a passage that can
happen in multiple LSD sessions. There is also ego death on a longer term --
actually a lasting ego transcendence. "Ego death" is a very
transitory experience.

Technically, "ego transcendence" is a more robust, accurate term
than "ego death" -- and the word "suspension" is really
good. A lot of this terminology is a matter of usage and definition. Many
people talk about "ego death" and LSD is certainly experienced as a
kind of death -- people talk about "feeling like I was dying". There
is the Grateful Dead with all their skeleton imagery. There is crossing the
river styx. In rites of pasage, the immature self dies and the more mature self
is born.

From Rush: Caress of Steel: Bastille Day:

See THEM bow their heads to DIE
As we would BOW as they rode by
And WE're marching to Bastille Day
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Sing, oh choirs of cacophony
The king has KNEELED
To let his kingdom rise

The "king" here is king ego -- the false, illusory aspect of the
ego-agent.

As the aristocratic kings died, so will ego bow, kneel, and die, as an
illusory cybernetic controller/governor residing inside the mind, during an LSD
session.

>but enough to (hopefully) leave the person with enough of an insight
into the nature of the ego so that they can see their way more clearly even
when without lsd, thereby making it easier and easier to eat lsd, as the ego is
'softened' thru repeated experience.

The ego "dies" as far as no longer being the unchallenged center
of personal identity. The ego becomes more like a tool and an identity token,
rather than one's true identity. The ego becomes as a tool of the mind.

After ego death, the new mind, or new ego, is different in some essential
way from the old ego. The new ego is a more sophisticated, more well-understood
ego, that is more differentiated from all the other activities of the mind. Ego
death and ego transcendence can be thought of a simply a better understanding
of the real nature of the ego -- such as seeing the way in which ego has
*always* been an illusion. This can be subtle -- the ego is not entirely an
illusion; it *sort of* exists. In the mystic state of dissociative cognition,
the ego is re-perceived, and re-conceptualized. This is usually impossible,
during the normal state of cognition, because deeply locked-in patterns of
thought prevent the mind from examining the ego.

I have never heard someone claim to be born into a new "ego". They
ususally say something like "I died to the old self to be born as a new,
true Self". Ego is, by convention, demonized -- except by egotists, who
usually do not have any insight about mystic experiencing or transpersonal
psychology.

>What's usually referred to as "ego" in ego-death isn't the
Freudian ego, it's the self-conscious narcissistic narrative, according to some
who are experienced in Zen ... I find this compatible with my own "ego
death" psychedelic experiences, it's not loss of self so much as loss of
the "selfish self". "Zen and the Brain" explains it in
detail.

Language about the sense in which ego exists and does not exist is very
subtle.

I was glad to see that new book, Zen and the Brain.

I am concerned with the maximum effects of LSD, such as the sum of the
following experience:

Take about 400 mics, and hold out your fingers -- are they shaking, in small
distinct rapid vibrating motion, noticeably more than usual?

The black hole takes control away from the empty illusion of the inner
homunculus who is the source and controller of the will and self-control.
Another place where the double-inverse pentagram appears is the sleeve of
Farewell to Kings. The cover on that album shows a puppet king. Kings actually
were thought of as puppets, of the divine will. Whoever ends up king, must have
been divinely fated to be given that power. The king's power, though, was
thought of as deriving from the god of Fate, master of the future and all time.

Who is this king that dies in this new Bastille Day we have? In the
Enlightenment, political and rational enlightenment hands the reins to the
individual, and eliminates the metaphysical political system of a hierarchy of
control flowing down from God, through the kings, and finally to the serfs (the
lowest slaves in the giant master-slave hierarchy). Now we enjoy autonomy -- or
perhaps we enjoy a *direct* master-slave relationship to god, rather than a
circuitous hierarchical master-slave relationship to the omnipotence of the god
who is the master of eternity. The mystic point of view shows a new appearance
of the landscape of metaphysics, time, and self-control: the power of the
autonomous self of modernity is seen as a confusion and illusion of the mind,
and the source of one's will appears to be the world shaped as a block-universe
with the time-axis frozen. One's will, at any point in the past, present, or
future, appears to be floating eternally, pre-given at every point in time.
This is the revealing of the hidden secret of self-government: apparently, according
to altered-statte perception and the accompanying rational mental-model, it
does stand to reason and perception that oneself cannot be the *ultimate*
source of one's actions. It looks as though I am not my own ultimate
self-controller. All my own power melts as I become a slave under the power of
Fate and time, grovelling before my one true master, the god of Fate, the god
of the future.

Ooh, there's no bread, let 'em eat cake
There's no end to what they'll take
Flaunt the fruits of noble birth
Wash the salt into the earth

But they're marching to Bastille Day.
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize.
Free the dungeons of the innocent [sinlessness as all responsibility is
recognized as owned by Ground of Being]
The king will kneel
And let his kingdom rise.

Ooh, blood stained velvet, dirty lace, [search "blood",
"crimson"] [white appears dirty smudged during altered state]
naked fear on every face [terror of loss of control in ego death]
See them bow their heads to die [in ego death, many feel forced to bow to the
Ground of Being or divine higher control level, or underlying control level,
acknowledging its priority of power over the ego]
As we would bow as they rode by
And we're marching to Bastille Day [*we* will die as governors just as did the
kings]
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize [flaming sword cuts off ego's head
when one grasps cybernetic Truth]
Sing, oh choirs of cacophony
The king has kneeled [ego has died to let the power of the Ground of Being be
recognized]
To let his kingdom rise.

Lessons taught but never learned [search "Lesson", as in the song
by that name on 2112]
All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past [as kings-as-governors died, so shall
egos-as-governors die]
Long ago the mould was cast
For they marched up to Bastille Day
La guillotine claimed her bloody prize
Hear the echoes of the centuries
power isn't all that money buys. [money to buy LSD (thousand 10 cent wonders)
appears to enable greater personal control via metaprogramming the mind, but
instead, leaves one metaphysically powerless and helpless]

I looked in the mirror today; [altered mind as mirror]
my eyes just didn't seem so bright. [can hear "my I"] [the
"I" construct isn't very smart; it's largely an illusion and a
logical impossibility]
I've lost a few more hairs. [directs attention above the head] [this could very
well be a joke about the myth of LSD causing chromosome damage: "I've lost
a few more heirs]
I think I'm going bald,
I think I'm going bald.

Seems like only yesterday
We would sit and talk of dreams all night, [trip all night]
Dreams of youth and simple truths. [allusion to fountain of youth, fountain of
Lamneth]
Now we're all so involved,
So involved with life.

Once we loved the flowers,
Now we ask the price of the land.
Once we would take water,
But now it must be wine. [wine = lsd, as in "Cask of '43"]
Now we've been and now we've seen [our ego been transcended, seen Truth]
What price peace of mind. [search "peace"]
Take a piece of my mind. [allusion to psychotomimetic, and
concretization/fragmentation of mental construct processing]

My life is slipping away. [allusion to ego death]
I'm aging every day.
But even when I'm grey,
I'll still be grey my way. [even in a state of transcending personal existence,
retain personal uniqueness]

(Lakeside Park is in St. Catharine's, on Lake Ontario, in Canada. May 24th
is Victoria Day, commemorating Queen Victoria's birthday.)

Words and music by Lee, Lifeson, and Peart

Midway hawkers calling "Try your luck with me." [luck, fatalism,
risk of LSD, gamble of trying to purchase real LSD] [search "luck"]
Merry-go-round wheezing same old melody. [whirling theme]
A thousand ten-cent wonders, who could ask for more. [higher in the LSD
distribution chain you can buy 1000 hits for $100 - each hit is 10 cents]
A pocketful of silver, the key to heaven's door. [= LSD, search "key"
- Twilight Zone: use the key, unlock the door, see what your fate might have in
store]

Days of barefoot freedom, racing with the waves, [search "wave" -
waving perception]
Nights of starlit secrets, crackling driftwood flames, [inner secrets revealed]
Drinking by the lighthouse, smoking on the pier, [consider drinking
"wine" and smoking THC]
Still, we saw the magic was fading every year. [compare depression of Fountain
of Lamneth]

Everyone would gather on the twenty fourth of May, [what day is this?]
Sitting in the sand to watch the fireworks display.
Dancing fires on the beach, singing songs together,
Though it's just a memory, some memories last forever. [timelessness]

As grey traces of dawn tinge the eastern sky, the three travelers, men of
Willow Dale, emerge from the forest shadow. Fording the River Dawn, they turn
south, journeying into the dark and forbidding lands of the Necromancer. Even
now the intensity of his dread power can be felt, weakening the body and
saddening the heart. Ultimately they will become empty, mindless spectres,
stripped of will and soul. Only their thirst for freedom gives them hunger for
vengeance...

[altered state themes in this story include: night voyage, remote cybernetic
control of oneself by dispassionate higher-power controller, frightfulnes of
being controlled by a higher level of power, ego emptiness, loss of egoic
stable thinking, loss of control over one's own will, insight about illusory
nature of metaphysical freedom.]

Silence shrouds the forest
as the birds announce the dawn.
Three trav'llers ford the river
and southward journey on.
The road is lined with peril,
and the air is charged with fear.
The shadow of his nearness
weighs like iron tears. [search "tears", as in the song
"Fountain of Lamneth" and song "Tears"]

Shreds of black cloud loom in overcast skies; the Necromancer keeps watch
with his magic prism eyes. [blurring during dissociative state, like
"glass onion" or Donovan's "crystal spectacles".] He views
all his lands [compare Biblical phrase "the kingdom of God is all around
you, but you don't see it"] and is already aware of the three helpless
invaders trapped in his lair... [being caught helplessly in a trap is a common
theme of the LSD peak, as is feeling like a trespasser into the dominion of the
gods/controllers/fates when one rises too high in consciousness]

Gaze into his prisms, [altered-state perceptual blurring, compare "sea
spray blurs my vision"]
knowing they are near.
Lead them to the dungeons.
Spectres numb with fear,
they bow defeated. [search "bow"] [defeat of ego power during ego
death]

Enter the Champion. Prince By-Tor appears to battle for freedom from chains
of long years. The spell has been broken...the Dark Lands are bright, the
Wraith of the Necromancer soars away... in the night.

Stealthily attacking,
By-Tor slays his foe.
The men are free to run now
from labyrinths below. [altered-state navigation of the labyrinth of strange
loop of egoic control and ego-agency]
Wraith of the Necromancer
shadows through the sky;
another land to darken
with evil prism eye. [note singular here, unlike above; think 3rd eye] [this
song calls omnipotent God evil though all-powerful; implies that By-Tor is
victorious. But, in terms of Christian symbology, it's not clear if By-Tor is
Jesus the substitute sacrifice savior, or Satan the good ego as against God or
against a bad demiurge, or Michael the Archangel. In the song "By-Tor And
The Snow Dog", By-Tor was the bad guy, defeated by Snow-Dog. We could say
that Jesus buys us control-power from God, so that God and egos are co-rulers,
co-cybernetic-power wielders, co-governors -- thus a rescuer-figure purchases
virtual freedom/power for the ego, despite the nonreality or illusory nature of
ego as control-agent.]

Alex Lifeson (1983 interview): "Ged and Neil wrote the lyrics for The
Fountain of Lamneth, and he thought it would be kind of nice to try to
incorporate a very loose concept in it by having a starting point and ending
point which would go from the beginning of side 2 [to] the end of side 2 and it
would be one complete story, but broken up, so that it could be individual
songs that, unless you look closely, wouldn't necessarily relate to each
other."

The mountain holds the sunrise
in the prison of the night,
till bursting forth from rocky chains,
the valley floods with light.

Living one long sunrise, [at end of all-night trip]
for to me all things are new. [rebirth, sense of new Creation]
I've never watched the sky grow pale, [at end of all-night trip]
or strolled through fields of dew.

I do not know of dust to dust.
I live from breath to breath. [intense fear during peaking, holding on to ego
desperately moment-to-moment]
I live to climb that mountain
to the Fountain of Lamneth. [live to explore mystic altered state]

["Listen!" is an injunction to now prepare to be taught the
greatest truths, by the mystic altered state.]

[search "listen"]

[You didn't listen again, to *this* lesson in *this* important, key song:
THERE IS NO CYBERNETIC GOVERNOR AGENT AT THE CONTROLS running your mind and
actions; ego is only epiphenomal, with all its actions completely originating
from the Ground of Being rather than truly originating from the creative power
of the ego-agent.]

The highest philosophy song ever written is "No One at
the Bridge". Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" is just a
typical New Age expression of mystic "knowledge" in that it is
non-rational, and has no distinct, explicable meaning. But even the *title* of
"No One at the Bridge" is packed full of specific insights about the
nature of self-control cybernetics.

Crying back to consciousness, [once more, in the altered state]
the coldness grips my skin. [tingles and nervous chills of meditation]
The sky is pitching violently, [altered state perception]
Drawn by shrieking winds

Seaspray blurs my vision [blurred vision of altered state]
The waves roll by so fast [loose perceptual cognition of altered state]
Save my ship of freedom [freedom becomes amplified to instability]
I'm lashed, helpless, to the mast [experience of helplessness]
Remembering when first I held
the wheel in my own hands, [self-control steersmanship, augmented]
I took the helm so eagerly
and sailed for distant lands [pushing the boundaries]
But now the sea's too heavy. [heavy problems of controlling freedom arise]
And I just don't understand,why must my crew desert me [my self who controls,
is seen as partly illusory]
when I need a guiding hand? [I *need* an ego in my head to steer myself]
Call out for direction [my guidance systems are all suspended]
and there's no one there to steer [there's no one in me to give birth to will]
Shout out for salvation [kneel and pray to god-of-Fate to save me from freedom]
but there's no one there to hear [no god appears]
Cry out supplication [grovel slave-like, humbly, contritely, desperately]
for the maelstrom is near [the whirlpool vortex of self-control breakdown]
Scream out desperation [in deepest jeopardy]
but no one cares to hear [there is no god out there who cares to save me]

[Bacchus is another name for Dionysus, the god of intoxication and
transgression of the restraints of Reason. This is manic intoxication with
psychedelics; wine was just a general purpose carrier and preservative base for
all sorts of substances. Wine historically and more interestingly can be
conceived of as an alcoholic suspension of something. After being
frequently and intensely intoxicated with LSD, depression is a common result.]

To days
without that chill at morning.
Long nights, [tripping]
time out of mind. [psychotomimetic, out of the egoic mind mode]

Draw another goblet [another LSD dose]
from the cask of '43. [LSD, discovered in 1943]

[Here is what some goblets of wine from the cask of '43 look like. This is
25 hits, each of the squares contains nominally 100 micrograms. 5 of these hits
would make a suitably strong dose to produce the full-fledged classic
experience of ego death, feeling like a cognitive puppet completely led around
and produced in total by the universal process.]

Give me back my wonder. [after understanding ego death, no more challenge in
life]
I've something more to give.
I guess it doesn't matter.
There's not much more to,
not much more to live.

Another foggy dawn. [blurred perception, near end of LSD session]
The mountain almost gone. [mystic allusion to "then there is no
mountain"]
Another doubtful fear. [search "fear"]
The road is not so clear.

Look the mist is rising,
and the sun is peeking through. [the trip is peaking]
See the steps grow lighter
as I reach their final few.

Hear the dancing waters;
I must be drawing near.
Feel, my heart is pounding [erratic heartbeat]
with embattled hope and fear.

The key, the end, the answer, [key = LSD dose = cybernetic loop
understanding]
stripped of their disguise. [hidden/revealed theme]
Still it's all confusion,
and tears spring to my eyes. [search "tears", as in the song
"Tears"]

Though I've reached a signpost;
it's really not the end. [what to do in life now?]
Like old Sol behind the mountain,
I'll be coming up again. [will have many more LSD sessions to re-experience
these insights]

Now at last I fall before
The Fountain of Lamneth.
I thought I would be singing,
but I'm tired, out of breath. [suspended breath and energy of LSD session]

Many journeys end here, [Even so near the beginning of his lyrics career,
Peart has already completed the highest journey; his life's quest has already
come to its end; how could there be anything more to do?]
but the secret's told the same.
Life is just the candle,
and a dream must give it flame.

>Where did Neil come up with these ideas in 2112? In the
book in the cd, there is a little excerpt about 2112, by a woman.

All the Rush fans online but me are more or less mystified by it, and finds
no overarching theme that fits. Shrugging, they say "who dares to try to
understand the Gods?" But Rush are no gods, just one more who's searching
for a world that ought to be, an explorer at the forefront of a community of
leading, modern mystics.

As far as the place of ego and Ayn Rand's Objectivism, ego is a transitional
stage in the development of human consciousness over history. When divine kings
ruled, people did not have egos in the sense that we are fully accustomed to.
They did not have our feeling of being entirely self-sufficient, sovereign
steersmen of our own destiny. Rush, and other groups, are devoted to building
up and affirming this freedom and sovereign power of the ego. And yet, they
build it up as a platform from which we can explore the things beyond the
separate ego -- the experience of mystic unity and nonduality.
This is an attitude of affirming the ego in order to transcend it.

Many people think that LSD is the most fascinating discovery of the 20th
century, of all time. Unfortunately the government and fearful people have made
it illegal and have demonized drugs. This attitude of crushing the fountainhead
of philosophical inspiration is extremely depressing to those who have had the
privilege of experiencing it, the key that unlocks the door to the higher
dimension where time and space collide and there is no escape from the Truth
about our freedom. There's no one around [in your head, no homunculus-controller
(see Minsky's _Society of Mind_)], you've just become his brand-new toy
[helpless against what your fate might have in store] -- and no escape, no
place to hide!

Here is "the key to Heaven's door"; Rush tells us to "Use the
key, unlock the door":

Above: LSD-soaked blotter paper with a chemical diagram of the LSD molecule.
The browning of the paper indicates it does contain LSD molecules, is not
fresh, but is probably still potent.

"I learned to... turn the keys."

Lennon in Help: "Now I find I've changed my mind, and opened up the
doors."

It is well-known that Rush is a pot-positive band (see Passage to Bangkok
and "burning pot" in Chemistry), but less well known that they are
more of an acid-positive band. The highest use of pot is 3 hours into a trip.

This is where Neil came up with all these ideas.

Truth is false, and logic lost, now the fourth dimension is crossed.

Rush personally invites you to
Use the key, unlock the door
You won't get wise, with the sleep still in your eyes

"For you -- the Truth."

2112 album lyrics by Neil Peart
"With acknowledgement to the genius of Ayn Rand"

The Naked Guy alludes to our psychological state in the Garden of Eden, when
we "knew not" the moral system of constraints, of the guidance-system
of good and evil. Before the egoic mental system, there was innocence of good
and evil; during the egoic phase, the mental principles of morality reined and
guided us; and finally, after (or beyond) the ego, after mystic enlightenment,
there is again the innocence of good and evil, or nakedness. (This is just some
preliminary associations; of course there are many issues I can't touch upon in
this posting.)

Who is the king overthrown in the Enlightenment of the double-inverse
pentagram? It is King Ego.

References:

A few of the many other songs by Rush alluding to ego death, fate, breakdown
of freedom/self-control:

Bastille Day (on _Caress of Steel_)
The Enemy Within (on _Grace under Pressure_)
The Body Electric (on _Grace under Pressure_)

Books:

The Ominous Parallels - "A brilliant study of America today - and the
ominous parallels with the chaos of Pre-Hitler Germany" - the Ayn Rand
library - by Leonard Peikoff - 1982 (certainly the most gripping book of the
Ayn Rand library).

The New Satanists - Linda Blood - 1994. Compares Satanism and Nazism.
Examines power-motives of Satanists and the strategy of transgressing one's own
deepest moral constraints.

The rock album 2112 by Rush (1976) shows only a Red upright
pentagram-in-a-circle floating on black water, on the front cover. It's a
fold-out album. On the inside, it shows a naked guy apprehending this same
symbol. So Rush has been through some kind of experience resonating with
Satanism. The inside cover says "with acknowledgement to the genius of Ayn
Rand." What, then, is the connection between Satanism and Ayn Rand's
philosophy? Both of them promote the individual ego. But Rush highlights the
apprehensive encounter with a satanic power turned upside-down, an encounter
that happens through technology and logic. This encounter involves a discovery
that is rejected by the established priesthood as a destructive toy, a toy that
has some relationship to electric guitar.

The rock album 2112 by Rush (1976) shows only a Red upright
[double-inverted] pentagram-in-a-circle floating on black water, on the front
cover. On the inside, it shows a naked guy apprehending this same symbol.

Ozzy Osbourne, a Christian, does a comparable inversion of symbols on the
front and back covers of _Diary of a Madman_ (1981). On the front, you can see
the entire upside-down cross on the wall of his sorceror's pad, with a
psychotic Ozzy on rampage. On the back cover, after the crazy Ozzy entity has
"died", the reborn Ozzy is standing, blocking the view of the bottom
of the cross, so that the remaining visible portion appears as a smaller, but
upright, cross. This album chronicles Ozzy's psychedelic Discovery, belief,
paralysis, struggles for self-mastery, and finally, a despairing madness of the
ego which he now knows to be a lie, in some sense. The back cover shows him
reborn in white with the upright cross above his head, so that he is standing
under the cross. "Under the cross," by the way, can mean being buried
in the grave or "dead in Christ".

The star is a Satanic power symbol, inverted/negated. It is also a symbol of
a collective power seeking to control all.

I don't necessarily believe anything that Neal says -- he is a premiere
bullshitter and bluffer. He obscures the meanings of the lyrics and symbols in
order to protect the puzzle characteristic of the Rush lyrics, so that the game
of discovery and unfolding of meaning may continue.

The theory that the star strictly refers to collectivism fails to address
the fact that the pentagram in a circle, when inverted, symbolizes the worship
of Satanic power. The symbol used in 2112 then takes on, in some altered form,
the meanings which have already been established for the symbol of Satanism.
That is how symbolism works, especially when the two symbols are so blatantly
close. It is absurd to just dismiss the associations already built up around
the colors red and black, and the star-in-a-circle, as having no relevance
whatsoever.

The philosophy of Satanism shares some elements with objectivism -- namely,
egoism. The idea of turning the logic of Satanism upside-down, setting the
power of ego and freedom against itself, has great explanatory potential. Also
I think it captures the essence of the naked guy much better to say that he is
"apprehending" this power, not that he is simply in fear. Ego-power
is logically problematic, as is freedom. "Look up to see a giant boy,
you've just become his brand new toy. And no escape, no place to hide, here
where time and space collide."

The problems with Satanism is that the ego, as conventionally conceived, is
logically self-contradictory -- it is misconceived and an unstable foundation
for human thought. Also, Satanism is succeptible to becoming lopsided, chaotic,
and unbalanced, turning into a dominance-and-submission power relationship. I
haven't seen a real explanation of why that is, but there is evidence of this
tendency. Thus, Nazism becomes a bedfellow of Satanism.

The Red Star symbolizes *all* of the following:

Political collectivism as a power that *generally*
oppresses the individual

Authoritarian denial of our *specific* freedom to use
the psychedelic discovery, in the name of protecting people or society -
the state jails individuals for supposedly jeopardizing the stability of
society

Inversion of ego-power and the logic of freedom, apprehended
in the altered state

Geddy on the man/star symbol: Geddy Lee (1983 interview): "Hugh Syme
designed that. Once he received the lyrics for 2112 and heard some of the music
and know what the album was, sortof, what direction the album was going, and he
designed the graphics to go along with it and he came up with the design. It
sorta comes to us to sort of stand for individualism, sorta man against the
masses."

Neil Peart on the symbol: Neil Peart (Creem 1982): "All it means is the
abstract man against the mass. The red star symbolizes any collectivist
mentality."

This "individual against the masses" can represent the tripping
philosopher against the straight, unthinking philistines who would jail the
philosopher.

Are there decent sources to read about Peart? Most rock biographies are
shallow and fail to truly interpret lyrics. They are gullible and stop at the
first, superficial, and obvious layer of meaning, as though the artists have no
deeper ideas and meanings to communicate. They slip over the surface and fail
to penetrate.

The pentagram appears on several Rush album sleeves and we're debating the
meaning of this. The pentagram is red, on a black background (colors associated
with Satanism). It has a circle. There is a naked guy standing in a pose of
apprehension (but not exactly fear). The pentagram has 1 point up, which I've
referred to as "double-inverted" as though it is a negation of the
inverted pentagram of Satanism. Rush has publically claimed that this symbol
refers to the threat of collectivism that crushes individual freedom.

The 1-point up pentagram is used by Rush as a symbol of the inversion of the
satanesque *ego*, an inversion that happens in mystic enlightenment. In short,
it represents ego death, the hanged man, in Rush's symbology.

Ayn Rand portrays collectivism as requiring the greatest
people to put themselves down and literally live not for themselves, but for
*the average* and downtrodden people. "Just think about the average --
what use have *they* for you?" -- what use do ordinary plain dull masses
have, for the ultimate insights and ecstatic terrors of high experiencing? The
sacred hidden knowledge revealed in the rites of Eleusis, and so also available
by drinking "the milk of paradise" "from the cask of '43"
(Rush), is of no *use*, no utility, for the mass of society -- in fact, it
dangerously destabilizes society and "must therefore" be repressed, denied,
as the temple Father grounds that precious instrument of transcendent knowledge
into splinters beneath his feet, in the name of protecting the contented life
of the average.

Rush has an album-side against the spirit of your argument. Compare these
and listen again:

A drug user online wrote "Hard drugs such as speed, XTC, PCP, heroin,
coke, etc. truly are for the experimental individual. However these drugs DO
ruin a vast amount of lives. As such, and as they don't seem to have any
medical benefit, I personally think they don't have a responsible place in our
society."

Beware of what you are thinking! Your words are the same as the evil priests
in 2112. Neil Peart, lyricist of Rush, wrote the following, as the famous words
of the small-minded, evil cultural authorities:

... "The massive grey walls of the Temples rise
from the heart of every Federation city. I have always been awed by them, to
think that every single facet of every life is regulated and directed from
within! Our books, our music, our work and play are all looked after by the
benevolent wisdom of the priests..."

We work together common sons
Never need to wonder how or why.

Look around this world we made
Equality our stock in trade
Come and join the Brotherhood of Man
Oh what a nice contented world

I see the works of gifted hands
That grace this strange and wondrous land
I see the hand of man arise
With hungry mind and open eyes [to do: link to "open eyes" list in
rushacid.htm]

I can no longer live under the control of the
Federation, but there is no other place to go.

The government, in the name of the good of the average person, takes the
position:

LSD is just for the experimental individual, not for the average man. LSD
ruins a vast amount of lives, whether or not this is from long-term
psysiological effects; and LSD doesn't seem to have any medical benefit.
Therefore, LSD does not have a place in our society, and should be unavailable.
This unavailability means that LSD must be illegal, which means that people
should be put in jail for using it. LSD is useless and detrimental to the
average man, therefore, the inquisitive individual should be put in jail for
using it.

The above is precisely the position of the actual "priests" who
made LSD illegal in the U.S. on October 6, 1966 -- 32 years ago. For 32 years,
the rulers of the U.S., in the name of the benefit of the Average, have been
jailing and ruining LSD users, including advanced acid mystics, philosophers,
and consciousness explorers like the lyricist of the great Rush albums.

And the meek shall inherit the earth. [Ultimately, the no-free-will
worldmodel remains standing, while free-will thinking is doomed to collapse in
the light of mystic insight and mystic-state experiencing.]

... "The massive grey walls of the Temples rise from the heart of every
Federation city. I have always been awed by them, to think that every single
facet of every life is regulated and directed from within! Our books, our
music, our work and play are all looked after by the benevolent wisdom of the
priests..."

We've taken care of everything
The words you hear the songs you sing
The pictures that give pleasure to you eyes. [this is a cognitive-puppethood
description; the stream of cognition is pre-set and given to you by the Ground
of Being]

It's one for all and all for one
We work together common sons
Never need to wonder how or why.

We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
Our great computers fill the hallowed halls.
We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life are held within our walls.

Look around this world we made
Equality our stock in trade
Come and join the Brotherhood of Man
Oh what a nice contented world
Let the banners be unfurled
Hold the Red Star proudly high in hand.

We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
Our great computers fill the hallowed halls.
We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life are held within our walls.

The aspiring individual, Anonymous, wants the share "the toy" he
found with the priests of the establishment temples. "The toy" refers
to "the guitar", which was one thing that destroyed the "elder
race" (that's us, 20th century).

But of course the album 2112 and "the discovery" is not about a
mere guitar. It's actually about the discovery of the most potent source of
philosophical, moral, and religious experiencing. A source, a toy, so potent
that it has the potential of destroying our race. A toy that doesn't fit the
establishment plan of a placid peace, contentment, and equality under the
benevolent guidance of the temple priests.

The lyrics on the back cover were not included in the 2112 lyrics I posted
from the lyrics web, and they should have been. They include the following:

... the surviving planets were banded together under the Red Star of the
Solar Federation. ... I believed what I was told, I thought it was a good life,
I thought I was happy. Then I found something that changed it all...." --
Anonymous, 2112

Notice the reference to the Red Star. But especially, notice "Then I
found something that changed it all," which hardly could refer to a mere
electric guitar. Actually it refers to a chemical trigger that forcefully
confronts the mind, will, and self-control, with the highest philosophical,
moral, and religious questions, as well as the most intense aesthetic
experiences of terror and beauty. It is not so much the discovery of freedom,
as it is the full understanding of the nature and implications of freedom.

"I lie awake, staring out at the bleakness of
Megadon. City and sky become one, merging into a single plane, a vast sea of
unbroken grey. The Twin Moons, just two pale orbs as they trace their way
across the steely sky. I used to think I had a pretty good life here, just
plugging into my machine for the day, then watching Templevision or reading a
Temple Paper in the evening.

My friend Jon always said it was nicer here than
under the atmospheric domes of the Outer Planets. We have had peace since 2062,
when the surviving planets were banded together under the Red Star of the Solar
Federation. The less fortunate gave us a few new moons.

I believed what I was told, I thought it was a good
life, I thought I was happy. Then I found something [LSD, electric guitar,
individual consciousness] that changed it all..."

-- Anonymous, 2112

... "Behind my beloved waterfall, [= altered-state perceptual waving]

in the little room that was hidden beneath
the cave, I found it. I brushed away the dust of the years, and picked it up,
holding it reverently in my hands. I had no idea what it might be, but it was
beautiful" ...
... "I learned to lay my fingers across the wires, and to turn the keys
[search "key" - key = LSD dose = cybernetic Truth]

to make
them sound differently. As I struck the wires with my other hand, I produced
my first harmonious sounds, and soon my own music! How different it could be
from the music of the Temples! I can't wait to tell the priests about it!
..." [my cybernetic insight is a very different approach than conventional
religion -- one that succeeds at producing enlightenment and transcendent
understanding of moral agency]

What can this strange device be?
When I touch it, it gives forth a sound
It's got wires that vibrate and give music
What can this thing be that I found?

See how it sings like a sad heart
And joyously screams out its pain
Sounds that build high like a mountain
Or notes that fall gently like rain.

I can't wait to share this new wonder
The people will all see its light
Let them all make their own music [let us each experience mystic insight
directly and gain understanding through direct personal experience]
The Priests praise my name on this night.

... "In the sudden silence as I finished playing, I looked up to a
circle of
grim, expressionless faces. Father Brown rose to his feet, and his somnolent
voice echoed throughout the silent Temple Hall." ...
... "Instead of the grateful joy that I expected, they were words of quiet
rejection! Instead of praise, sullen dismissal. I watched in shock and horror
as Father Brown ground my precious instrument to splinters beneath his
feet..."

I know it's most unusual
To come before you so
But I've found an ancient miracle
I thought that you should know

Listen to my music
And hear what it can do
There's something here as strong as life
I know that it will reach you.

Yes, we know it's nothing new
It's just a waste of time
We have no need for ancient ways
The world is doing fine

Another toy will help destroy
The elder race of man
Forget about your silly whim
It doesn't fit the plan.

I can't believe you're saying
These things just can't be true
Our world could use this beauty
Just think what we might do.

Listen to my music
And hear what it can do
There's something here as strong as life
I know that it will reach you.

Don't annoy us further
We have our work to do.
Just think about the average
What use have they for you? [average people have no need for exploring mystic
altered state, so it shall be illegal]

Another toy will help destroy
The elder race of man
Forget about your silly whim
It doesn't fit the plan.

... "I guess it was a dream, but even now it all seems so vivid to me.
[post-trip, trip seems as a dream]

Clearly
yet I see the beckoning hand of the oracle as he stood at the summit of the
staircase" ...
... "I see still the incredible beauty of the sculptured cities [search
"city"/"cities"; in Hemispheres, building cities is later
called insufficient motivation in life] and the pure
spirit of man revealed in the lives and works of this world. I was overwhelmed
by both wonder and understanding [overwhelming insights of altered state] as I
saw a completely different way to life, a
way that had been crushed by the Federation long ago. I saw now how
meaningless life had become with the loss of all these things ..."
[contrast "Fountain of Lamneth" -- life is meaningless and unchallenging
after reaching enlightenment through tripping, *because there is no more
challenge* -- here the complaint is different: desire for LSD as the very
effective key to highest revelation, but it's illegal due to the "needs of
the average"]

I wandered home though the silent streets
And fell into a fitfull sleep
Escape to realms beyond the night
Dream can't you show me the light?

I stand atop a spiral stair [mystic-state allusion]
An oracle confronts me there
He leads me on light years away
Through astral nights, galactic days

I see the works of gifted hands
That grace this strange and wondrous land
I see the hand of man arise
With hungry mind and open eyes [see how the highest, most advanced members of
society, who want to use LSD, are held down due to the "needs of the
average"]

They left the planet long ago
The elder race still learn and grow
Their power grows with purpose strong
To claim the home where they belong
Oh, to tear the Temples down...
Oh, to change..

... "I have not left this cave for days now, it has become my last
refuge in my
total despair. [I just want to trip all the time and study mystic cybernetic
phenomena] I have only the music of the waterfall [perceptual waviness of
altered state] to comfort me now. I
can no longer live under the control of the Federation, [theme of wanting
release from external control] but there is no other
place to go. My last hope is that with my death I may pass into the world of
my dream, and know peace at last."

The sleep is still in my eyes
The dream is still in my head
I heave a sigh and sadly smile
And lie a while in bed
I wish that it might come to pass
Not fade like all my dreams

Just think of what my life might be
In a world like I have seen
I don't think I can carry on
Carry on this cold and empty life
Oh...noo. [suicidal despair -- it is surprising to find this *defeat* of the
Individual in Rush lyrics.]

Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
We have assumed control. [We have incorrectly *assumed* that we ever had
control, as egoic controller agents.] [theme of radical shift of control-center
in altered state - ambiguous if Individuals or collectivist Priests/governors
have won]
We have assumed control.
We have assumed control.

[About marijuana, which is a companion drug for LSD. Compare song
"Chemistry", including "burning p-hotter"]

Our first stop is in Bogota
To check Columbian fields
The natives smile and pass along
A sample of their yield
Sweet Jamaican pipe dreams
Golden Acapulco nights
Then Morocco, and the East,
Fly by morning light

We're on the train to Bangkok
Aboard the Thailand Express
We'll hit the stops along the way
We only stop for the best

Wreathed in smoke in Lebanon
We burn the midnight oil
The fragrance of Afghanistan
Rewards a long day's toil
Pulling into Katmandu
Smoke rings fill the air
Perfumed by a Nepal night
The Express gets you there

A pleasant faced man steps up to greet you
He smiles and says he's pleased to meet you
Beneath his hat the strangeness lies
Take it off, he's got three eyes [3rd eye of perception, to see our hidden
nature; refers to mystic dissociative state. (Twilight Zone episode "Will
The Real Martian Please Stand Up?" http://fusionanomaly.net/twilightzone.html)
Truth is false and logic lost [Egoic logic contains error, now corrected]
Now the fourth dimension is crossed [especially, time is seen as frozen]

You have entered the Twilight Zone
Beyond this world strange things are known [they *are* known, though strange]
Use the key, unlock the door [the potent chemical key] [search for
"key"; occurs several times - "the key to heaven's door",
"I learned to turn the keys"]
See what your fate might have in store [experience of Fatalism]
Come explore your dreams' creation [world and self experienced as constructs]
Enter this world of imagination [world of illusion-like mental constructs]

You wake up lost in an empty town ['wake up' mystically] [scene empty of
self] (TZ pilot episode "Where Is Everybody?")
Wondering why no one else is around ['no one' lives in the homunuclus-illusion]
Look up to see a giant boy [yourself-across-time, or satan or god] (TZ episode
"Stopover In A Quiet Town" has a giant girl)
You've just become his brand new toy [sense of being a puppet]
And no escape, no place to hide [sense of entrapment, robbed of feeling of
power]
Here where Time and Space collide [dissolution of ego boundaries into
spacetime] [compare phrase "In between time" in the song
"Between the Wheels"]

[How to learn lessons from the mind itelf - independently of
authorities.]

You know we've told you before
But you didn't hear us then
So you still question why
You didn't listen again [this says, "go back and inspect the song "No
One at the Bridge very closely"; the shout of "Listen!"
introduces that song]

*When* could Rush possibly have told us anything before this album? In the
albums before 2112:

1. _Rush_
2. _Fly by Night_
3. _Caress of Steel_

1. The album _Rush_ couldn't count, because it's not a messsage-oriented
album and the word "we" couldn't apply, as Neil wasn't included in
the album Rush.

2. _Fly by Night_ has many allusions to mystic phenomena. This is part of
the pointing, the telling, that Lessons refers to. I feel that this album was
not quite mature though, as a vehicle for intelligibly communicating the mystic
phenomena.

3. _Caress of Steel_ also has many expressions alluding to the standard
altered state experiences. Most of all, in the song "No One at the
Bridge", which is possibly the best high philosophy song ever written, as
it deals with the helpless confrontation of fate that cancels the power of the
self-controlling, cybernetic steersman.

The mind can be its own teacher of higher knowledge. Every so often in
history, meditators throw off the writings and the authorized teachers, in
order to study their own mind directly. "The lessons come from within your
own head, not through authorities."

In Lessons, Rush tells us especially clearly, the Lessons (referred to in
the song Lessons on 2112). This is the lesson of the cancellation of egoic,
Satanic autonomy.

The Lessons are taught on a heavy sea of blurred vision with waves rolling
by (No One at the Bridge), as the ship of freedom is pulled toward the vortex
of enlightenment and the helmsman cries out supplication to the god of Fate, in
an empty sky of doom. In this episode, the Satanic pentagram of self-will turns
upside-down, as the logic of ego's system of autonomy, power, will, freedom,
and reason, inflates itself to the point of exposing its inner contradictions
in a logical explosion of self-deconstruction, "in a final flash of glory,
never more to witness the night" (Cygnus X-1). Cygnus X-1 is about a foolishly
daring trip to the black hole that takes control and shatters oneself.

Lyrics by Alex Lifeson

Sweet memories
Flashing very quickly by [in mystic state, memories are recognized as present
mental constructs rapidly presented to present pure awareness]
Reminding me [that all experiencing is in the form of mental constructs
presented to awareness]
and giving me a reason why [remembering altered state cognition] [gives a
reason to go on living; see end of Fountain of Lamneth]
I know that
My goal is more than a thought
I'll be there
When I teach what I've been taught [taught by the mystic state]

You know we've told you before [in our previous 2 acid-rock albums]
["we've told you before" is important: it establishes that the
mystic-state encoding system is understood and owned not just by a single band
member, but by all three]
But you didn't hear us then [you didn't pick up allusions to the alt-state]
So you still question why
You didn't listen again ["listen" is a direct reference to the
important song No One at the Bridge, which was introduced on the previous album
by shouting "LISTEN!!!"] [the standard state doesn't pick up on the
encoded signals; decoding requires the mystic altered state] [for those who
*did* listen to and understand "No One at the Bridge", they
understand this criticism to be aimed at the inexperienced mass of listeners,
rather than the experienced few]

Sweet memories I never thought it would be like this [it's surprising]
Reminding me Just how close I came to missing
I know that This is the way for me to go [the mystic altered state is the way
for the ego to go away, to disappear, to die]
You'll be there When you know what I know [it's a place any mind can know] [you
will be gone when you have mystic knowledge as I do] And I Know [I have
knowledge of cybernetic Truth; I am enlightened]

You know we've told you before [in No One at the Bridge, especially]
But you didn't hear us then
So you still question why [why we phrase things as we do. If you were
Experienced, you would understand, rather than question, the phrasing]
You didn't listen again

All of the seasons
And all of the days
All of the reasons
Why I've felt this way
So long
So long

Then lost in that feeling
I looked in your eyes
I noticed emotion
And that you had cried
For me
I can see

What would touch me deeper
Tears that fall from eyes
That only cry?
Would it touch you deeper
Than tears that fall from eyes
That know why? [tears of enlightened, revelation state] [search
"tears", as in the song "Fountain of Lamneth"]

A lifetime of questions
Tears on your cheek
I tasted the answers [eat LSD dose; compare "spit it out" -
"don't swallow the poison"]
And my body was weak
For you
The truth [love for Cybernetic Truth]

Waiting for the winds of change
To sweep the clouds away
Waiting for the rainbow's end
To cast its gold your way
Countless ways
You pass the days

Waiting for someone to call [come?]
And turn your world around [common mystic "whirling" theme]
Looking for an answer to
The question you have found [see "the key, the end, the answer"; LSD
or the mystic state is the answer, the key, to the question. The question is
the ego (egoic control power) as a puzzle to be solved]
Looking for
An open door ["use the key, unlock the door"] [the door is an open
one if you have "the key to heaven's door"]

You don't get something for nothing
You don't get freedom for free [you must abandon metaphysical freedom to know
truth and have the only true freedom of Indivdual power you can have]
You won't get wise [won't become enlightened]
With the sleep still in your eyes ["sleep" = lack of altered-state
experience and understanding of cybernetic truth]
No matter what your dreams might be [no matter how you conceive of the ego or
apply it to pursuit of goals, you will never understand the true nature of
ego's existence without awakening via mystic-state experience]

What you own is your own kingdom [search "king" and control -
complex theme]
What you do is your own glory
What you love is your own power [power is a complex theme] [egoic thinking
loves the apparent power of the ego, "your own power"]
What you live is your own story
In your head is the answer [the solution to the cybernetic puzzle is discovered
in the mind in altered-state introspection] [also consider head =
controllership/goverorship, can be severed as in Bastille Day]
Let it guide you along [the key, the altered state, is the Teacher and Guide]
Let your heart be the anchor [in the altered state one desperately needs an
anchor to stabilize self-control and steersmanship; compassion is the anchor
against destructive (even sacrificial) transgression]
And the beat of your own song

Neil's statement is pregnant with subtle meaning: "We also began a
series of puns with that album, in that the King is a puppet King. There have
been a lot of criticisms of the Throne over the past couple of decades as being
a heritage that we really can't disregard, but certainly don't take as
seriously as we used to."

Translation: "Throne" refers to ego as cybernetic steersman, a
purely self-directing sovereign agent. Popular culture and schools of
spirituality have criticized the ego, from the 50s Zen movement through the 60s
pscyhedelics movement and ensuing New Age spirituality movement, but we really
can't just dismiss this necessary mental construct. After experiencing ego
death, the ego does remain, but it is no longer taken as a literal reality.

This cover shows a puppet king with strings ascending into the heavens.
Compare the cover of Metallica's album Master of Puppets (the acknowledgements
of those liner notes include Rush), which shows a graveyard with puppet strings
attached to each headstone. During the peak of a full-intensity LSD session, a common
experience is to feel oneself to be a helpless puppet of the universal process.
Compare also the song Little Dolls by Ozzy Osbourne from Diary of a Madman.
These albums all have LSD themes and puppet or doll themes. The doll theme also
occurs in the song Twilight Zone (Rush: 2112 album).

The Death of King Ego

In the liner notes of the album Different Stages, one clipping is a
newspaper ad for the Farewell to Kings tour. It shows a skull wearing a crown.
This is a reference to ego death triggered through LSD. It uses the same skull
imagery as seen often in the Grateful Dead, but with the added concept of the
death specifically of the king -- that is, the death of kingship. This is
essentially synonymous with the puppet-king concept shown on the cover of the
album A Farewell to Kings. The "king" is our sense of independent
governorship or cybernetic steersmanship. On LSD, one perceives, very commonly,
that one's power of origination is largely illusory. One may create and
originate thoughts and acts of will, but this is seen as merely subservient,
2nd-order origination. The ego, or oneself, is not a prime mover; it is merely
a mover which is moved. You will do what the universal process forces you to
do, what it has determined and pre-set that you shall do. All preordained, king
ego finds himself as a prisoner in chains, a victim of fate -- a slave of fate.
The king/slave relationship is seen in the Crucifixion as well. This is the
highest realm of philosophy, the philosophy of ego death and self-motion, free
will and virtual (not actual) moral agency.

When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow
We turned our gaze
From the castles in the distance
Eyes cast down
On the path of least resistance

Cities full of hatred
Fear and lies
Withered hearts
And cruel tormented eyes
Scheming demons
Dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude
And scoffing at the wise

The hypocrites are slandering
The sacred halls of Truth
Ancient nobles showering
Their bitterness on youth
Can't we find
The minds that made us stong
Can't we learn
To feel what's right and wrong

Cities full of hatred
Fear and lies
Withered hearts
And cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons
Dressed in kingly guise [ego is demon-illusion acting as king] [search
"king"]
Beating down the multitude
And scoffing at the wise
Can't we raise our eyes
And make a start
Can't we find the minds
To lead us closer to the Heart

"To seek the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
To break my fast on honey dew
And drink the milk of paradise..."

I had heard the whispered tales
Of immortality
The deepest mystery
From an ancient book. I took a clue
I scaled the frozen mountain tops
Of eastern lands unknown [explored the mystic altered state]
Time and Man alone
Searching for the lost --- Xanadu

Xanadu --- To stand within The Pleasure Dome
Decreed by Kubla Khan
To taste anew the fruits of life
The last immortal man
To find the sacred river Alph
To walk the caves of ice
Oh, I will dine on honey dew
And drink the milk of Paradise

A thousand years have come and gone
But time has passed me by
Stars stopped in the sky
Frozen in an everlasting view [time-freezing in altered state]
Waiting for the world to end [common apocalypse theme of altered state]
Weary of the night [exhausting all-night battle/tripping]
Praying for the light [search "pray", "supplication"]
Prison of the lost --- Xanadu [search "prison"]

Xanadu --- Held within The Pleasure Dome
Decreed by Kubla Khan
To taste my bitter triumph
As a mad immortal man
Nevermore shall I return
Escape these caves of ice
For I have dined on honey dew
And drunk the milk of Paradise

And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones to start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the Heart

The Blacksmith and the Artist
Reflect it in their art
Forge their creativity
Closer to the Heart

Philosophers and Ploughmen
Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the Heart

You can be the Captain
and I will draw the Chart
Sailing into destiny [fatalism]
Closer to the Heart [realizing Cybernetic Truth crucially demands nonviolence,
non-transgression of convention moral actions]

A modest man from Mandrake
Travelled rich to the city
He had a need to discover
A use for his newly-found wealth [surprise: he doesn't "use" it by
giving it away; he ends up "holding it up as a challenge to the
hungry"]

Because he was human
Because he had goodness
Because he was moral [morality = challenging the hungry to better themselves
and gain money on their own power]
They called him insane [morality is logically unfounded]

Delusions of grandeur
Visions of splendour
A manic depressive [search "depress", "despair"] [synthetic
manic-depression of altered state]
He walks in the rain

When the dragons grow too mighty
To slay with pen or sword
I grow weary of the battle [search "battle"]
And the storm I walk toward ["toward storm" = drawn toward the
maelstrom strange attractor of mystic ego death]
When all around is madness [= psychotomimetic aspect of LSD, perceptual waving]
And there's no safe port in view [danger of loss of control on LSD during
cybernetic transcendence of control systems]
I long to turn my path homeward
To stop awhile with you

When life becomes so barren
And as cold as winter skies
There's a beacon in the darkness
In a distant pair of eyes
In vain to search for order
In vain to search for truth
But these things can still be given
our love has shown me proof

From the Rush FAQ: Cygnus X-1 is the name given to an X-ray source in the
constellation of Cygnus, believed to be a black hole. For a more detailed
explanation, check issue 567 of TNMS, available via anonymous ftp from
syrinx.umd.edu in the rush/digest directory. [to do: excerpt here]

Note the irregular heartbeat at the end. Turn the balance all to one side,
turn down the treble, and turn up the bass. An irregular heartbeat is a
signature physiological effect of LSD. In this context of the question of what
happens after passing through the black hole, the answer is "life
but..." ego death in life, with allusion to heart attack and death. He's
still alive, but a doctor might say he might be dying of a heart attack. Heart
palpitations - Whose heartbeat is at the end of the Rush album "Farewell
to Kings", at the end of the song "Cygnus XI", in one channel?

The following clip is the end of Cygnus X-1 - heart palpitations as in heavy
LSD use. Recorded mono from left channel only, boosted bass, increased volume
at start and end. Uneven
heartbeat (79 KB) (16 Kbps) High compression works well for this clip since
the treble is rolled off anyway. The .wma extension on this super-compressed
file is added to please WinAmp 2.21, otherwise the signal is uneven. You can
try renaming the file if necessary.587 KB
(128 Kbps), straightforward mp3 file extensionHeartbeat chart
from Cygnus X-1 -- 30 KB, mono from left channel only, boosted bass,
increased volume at start and end

The reason that this is important is that Cygnus XI is about mystic ego
death during an intense LSD trip. The heartbeat is erratic, as happens 2/3 of
the way through an intense trip when using a strong dose such as 1000 milligrams
(10 hits). Whoever's heartbeat that is, that person is an expert LSD user in
the latter portion of a high-dosage session. I expect that it is Peart's
heartbeat, because he is the mystic lyricist and must have great experience and
poise enough to think of this and capture it, whereas the others in and around
the group might not.

This erratic heartbeat is almost never mentioned in the research literature
-- it is subtle and only known to a few, intense-dosage LSD users. On the other
hand, LSD users often think they are going to die, and one reason for this --
though they forget it later -- is that breathing becomes so shallow it seems to
stop completely (think of the bodily tricks of the Indian gurus) and that the
heart races and then halts, erratically. It is quite reasonable to call the
ambulance when your breathing halts and your heart is very erratic, palpitating
in a (benign) heart attack. But the experienced tripper knows that these
physiological effects are sacred and normal and associated with the ego death
and ego-transcendence state, the mystic state of cognition. I need to write
more about these two layers. I always write about the mystic state of
*cognition* but I would capture the experience much more realistically and
vividly if I dwelled more on the accompanying *physiological* effects of the
altered state.

Hugh Syme (Creem, 1983): "Permanent Waves is the result of a
conversation which I had with Neil out at his home in the country. We spoke all
evening about Rush growing up, and how we were going to do these EKG
readings of each member as they were recording. We were going to tape their
temples and chests and have real heartbeats of them while they were playing. So
Permanent Waves was going to be a technical statement, and we were going to
treat that with red and gold foil, and do a nice study in design- as opposed to
a photographic thing. "I walked out and, in the doorway, said 'Wait! Let's
try something with Donna Reed, with her permanent Toni hairdo, and have her
walking out of a tidal wave situation.'

All who dare
To cross her course
Are swallowed by
A fearsome force [ego disappears and control is recognized to emanate from
Ground of Being rather than originating from ego-as-governor/creator]

Through the void
To be destroyed
Or is there something more? [do I die when my ego dies, or is there more?]
Atomized --- at the core [cognitive dis-integration/fragmentation]
Or through the Astral Door --- [through the Door of the altered state]
To soar...

I set a course just east of Lyra
And northwest of Pegasus
Flew into the light of Deneb
Sailed across the Milky Way

On my ship, the 'Rocinante'
Wheeling through the galaxies,
Headed for the heart of Cygnus
Headlong into mystery

The x-ray is her siren song [seeing through the normally solid-seeming ego
and cognitive layer, acts as a strange attractor; this attractor like the
sirens' singing leads to crash the ego, leads to ego-death]
My ship cannot resist her long [search "ship" as in the key song
"No One at the Bridge"] [ego's power is helpless to resist being
trumped and taken over by the power of the Ground of Being that is the
controller and creator of the ego, of every act and thought and act of will
that the ego normally seems to originate]
Nearer to my deadly goal [the control singularity vortex and its ego death]
Until the Black Hole
Gains control...

When our weary world was young
The struggle of the ancients was begun.
The gods of Love and Reason
Sought alone to rule the fate of Man. [search "fate",
"destin"]

[concern with fatedness. Fatalism is making a major comeback in contemporary
metaphysics, as people finally understand what exactly the position entails --
it's much harder to refute than determinism, as it makes fewer assertions about
*how* the future is preset.]

They battled through the ages,
But still neither force would yield.
The people were divided,
Every soul a battlefield.

"I bring truth and understanding,
I bring wit and wisdom fair,
Precious gifts beyond compare.
We can build a world of wonder,
I can make you all aware.
I will find you food and shelter,
Show you fire to keep you warm
Through the endless winter storms.
You can live in grace and comfort
In the world that you transform."

The people were delighted
Coming forth to claim their prize
They ran to build their cities
And converse among the wise.
But one day the streets fell silent,
Yet they knew not what was wrong.
The urge to build these fine things
Seemed not to be so strong.

[So much for Fountainhead - building skyscrapers does not fulfill the whole
needs of the human psyche.]

The wise men were consulted,
And the Bridge of Death was crossed
In quest of Dionysus,
To find out what they had lost.

[As a solution to the emptiness of egoic rational existence, people took
Kykeon in the Greek mysteries at Eleusis, or took LSD in other forms. This
brought ego death and took them across the river Styx.]

"I bring love to give you solace
In the darkness of the night,
In the Heart's eternal light.
You need only trust your feelings;
Only love can steer you right.
I bring laughter, I bring music,
I bring joy and I bring tears. [search "tears", as in the song "Fountain
of Lamneth" and song "Tears"]
I will soothe your primal fears.
Throw off those chains of reason
And your prison disappears."

[Dionysus fulfills the half of the psyche that starves to death in the dull
prison-world of the Randian ego.]

The cities were abandoned,
And the forests echoed song.
They danced and lived as brothers;
They knew love could not be wrong.
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared,
Bringing wolves and cold starvation,
And the hearts of men despaired.

[Egoic rationality without transcendence is a wasteland. But intoxication
and freedom and transcendence without Reason and order cannot sustain life or
pleasure.]

[The battle of transcendence vs. ego, experienced in the self-battle at the
peak of tripping.]

The Universe divided
As the Heart and Mind collided,
With the people left unguided
For so many troubled years.
In a cloud of doubts and fears,
Their world was torn asunder into hollow Hemispheres.

[Rand's reason/ego, without transcendence, is hollow and not sustenance.
Transcendence or tripping, without reason and order, is similarly hollow and
empty of worth.]

Some fought themselves, some fought each other.

[How do you fight yourself? The battle of self-control at the peak of
tripping, which exposes the governorship of the ego-agent as an illusion that
cannot even govern itself. "Every muscle tense to fight the enemy
within."]

Most just followed one another,
Lost and aimless like their brothers,
For their hearts were so unclear,

[Like the 60s boomers with their vague Revolution.]

And the truth could not appear.
Their spirits were divided into blinded Hemispheres.

[There it is. Rand's spirit, her "genius"/jinn, is blind. Reason
without transcendence is blind and cannot fulfill the real breadth of human
needs.]

Some who did not fight
Brought tales of old to light.

[These would be the mystic advanced meditators and trippers of old,
explorers of the astral plane, the transcendent level of cognition and higher
altered-state experiencing.]

My Rocinante' sailed by night
On her final flight.

[Here we have another vessel like Ozzy's "ship upon the
shore/shelf", and the ship of loss-of-helmsman-power in "No One at
the Bridge".]

To the heart of Cygnus' fearsome force
We set our course.

[Taking ten hits of LSD, sets us upon a collision course with higher truth,
to bring reason to full fruition in transcendent knowledge about the illusory
nature of ego.]

Spiralled through that timeless space
To this immortal place.

[The sense of time (and space) stops, ego death is now, physical death seems
infinitely removed.]

[Common mystic perception; time and space and body are experienced as
equivalent concrete illusions -- all just mental constructs.]

I am dead and yet unborn.

[Ego death - there never was an ego-entity, to be born or die.]

I have passed into Olympus
As was told in tales of old,
To the city of Immortals,
Marble white and purest gold.

[Marble: the concretization of perceptual constructs. Shifting shadows and
details. Heavenly bright white and gold are from pure-awareness-feedback.]

I see the gods in battle rage on high,

[Rand would not talk of seeing gods.]

Thunderbolts across the sky.

[Thunderbolt = psychoactive mushrooms after a storm, and psychedelics in
general. Here is a picture of LSD-soaked blotter representing the chemical
ego-death experience as a lightning bolt inside the mind:]

I cannot move, I cannot hide,

[Common LSD and mystic themes. Loss of control-power, feeling of being
monitored by a higher awareness, from inside.]

I feel a silent scream begin inside.

[Compare Ride the Lightning lyrics.]

Then all at once the chaos ceased.
A stillness fell, of sound and peace.
The warriors felt my silent cry
And stayed their struggle, mystified.

We can walk our road together
If our goals are all the same.
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim.
Let the truth of love be lighted,
Let the love of truth shine clear.
Sensibility, armed with sense and liberty,

[Freedom and liberty are portrayed as only *part* of the equation.]

With the Heart and Mind united in a single perfect Sphere.

[This is nothing like an ode to Rand's ego-only, reason-only philosophy, which
has a little about art but only to support reason, and actively rejects all
forms of mysticism and religion as empty of any value.]

A boy alone, so far from home,
Endless rooftops from my window.
I felt the gloom of empty rooms
On rainy afternoons.
Sometimes, in confusion,
I felt so lost and disillusioned,
Innocence gave me confidence
To go up against reality.

[The innocent tripper attempts to control himself and secure his power. When
he ultimately fails and becomes fully rationally enlightened, he has
innocently, accidentally achieved that comprehension which millenia of
philosophers have attempted and failed.]

All the same, we take our chances,
Laughed at by Time,

[In the LSD peak, you are killed and trumped by time. Time and the future do
not move, therefore freedom and personal power are fatally compromised.]

Tricked by Circumstances.
Plus ca change,
Plus c'est la meme chose,
The more that things change,
The more they stay the same.

[Change does not change; change is stationary. Change is permanent and
relative and pre-existing, just an effect or appearance.]

Now I've gained some understanding
Of the only world that we see.
Things that I once dreamed of
Have become reality.
These walls that still surround me
Still contain the same old me,
Just one more who's searching for a world that ought to be.

[How mass culture works to cripple the highest achievers. How the little
frightened minds would prevent even the inspired thinkers and scientists from
exploring LSD.]

There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble with the maples,
(And they're quite convinced the're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade.

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"These oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

[self-indulgence, Alice in Wonderland, dreaming, strangeness, monsters,
perceiving unreality of things/objects while tripping, and the death of kings
as the death of the inner egoic governors/controllers - not exactly Rand
territory.]

Neil Peart (Sounds, April 1980): "The woman on the cover is really a
symbol of us. If you think that's sexist in a negative way -- well, it's really
looking at ourselves so I don't think it can be. The idea is her perfect
imperturbability in the face of all this chaos. In that she represents us.
"In the basic sense, all that cover picture means is forging on
regardless, being completely uninvolved with all the chaos and ridiculous
nonsense that's going on around us. Plus she represents the spirit of music and
the spirit of radio, a symbol of perfect integrity and truth and beauty
and..."

Consider "Grace Under Pressure" -- same idea. How to retain poise
during ego death and the psychotimemetic state, without freaking out?

Begin the day with a friendly voice,
A companion unobtrusive
Plays the song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood.

Off on your way, hit the open road,
There is magic at your fingers
For the Spirit ever lingers,
Undemanding contact in your happy solitude.

Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antenna bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free

All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted.
Not so coldly charted, it's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah, your honesty.

One likes to believe in the freedom of music,
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity.

For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall,
Concert hall
And echoes with the sounds of salesmen. [can be heard as "sailsmen",
alluding to No One at the Bridge. ego death is the disappearance of cybernetic
steersmanship]

Geddy Lee ("Rockline", Dec 4 1989): "The song is about
freedom of choice and free will, and you believing in what you decide you
believe in." [but are you forced to reach your belief?] In
"Freewill" which lyrics are correct (the ones on the album sleeve or
the ones Geddy sings)? Neil Peart (Rush Backstage Club newsletter, December
1985): "That's a funny question. I've had a few lately from people who are
so sure that what they hear is correct, that they disbelieve what I've put in
the lyric sheets! Imagine! People have quoted me whole verses of what they
hear, as opposed to what's printed, sure that they are right and the cover (me)
is wrong. Scary stuff, these egocentric individuals. [notice
"ego" mention] I assure you, other than perhaps dropping an
"and" or a "but," we take great care to make the lyric
sheets accurate." [that is disingenuous - they often sing their lyrics so
as to be heard differently than printed; for example, "burning pot"
hidden in "burning hotter".]

The Song Freewill Is about Transcending, not Denying, Determinism

This is a profoundly ambiguous song just as pre-enlightenment naive freewill
only appears to be the same as post-enlightenment transcendent freedom.Naive freewill is ignorant of
determinism; enlightened freedom magically and miraculously transcends cosmic
determinism, thus Christian ideas such as "in regeneration, you become a
slave of God/Jesus instead of a slave of the devil".

The song Free Will by Rush must be read as a mystic-state problematization
of naive free will -- it was written after the lyricist was intimately familiar
with the intense mystic-state experience of no-free-will, so Free Will is a post-determinism
or transcendence-of-determinism song, not advocacy of naive freewill
as the noninitiates among the Rush fans assume.

After all, 3/4 of the verses in the song Free Will clearly state and express
and assert the classic determinist position: A planet of playthings, we dance
on the strings, of powers we cannot perceive.

But *in the face of this* mystic-state realization -- not in denial of it --
the mind is transcendently reset from outside of its own controllership
resources, one "becomes truly free" per mysticism, as opposed to
one's former asleep dream and naive assumption that one was free.

The song Freewill is not just only merely ironic; higher than that, it is
divinely transcendent (magical, miraculous, supernatural).The divinely transcendent (magical,
miraculous, supernatural) also appears in the song The Body Electric:
"Bows its head and prays to the (compassionate) mother of all machines,
mother of all machines."

The song Freewill has a predominant percentage of lines asserting
determinism or cosmic determinism, contrasted against a brief and
out-of-nowhere declaration of choosing free will.

I have defined the 'pre-trans fallacy' with respect to freewill: naive freewill
is to be contrasted with transcendent freewill.One moves from ignorance (freewill assumption) to knowledge
of the natural (that is, the experiential discovery of determinism), to
knowledge of the supernatural (that is, a certain kind of transcendence of
determinism and rationality).

The noninitiate and the perfected initiate both proclaim freedom from
heimarmene/fate/cosmic determinism, but one does it out of ignorance, and the
other out of transcendent gnosis, supernatural divine transcendent wisdom.Stage 3 (transcendence of determinism),
not stage 1 (ignorance of determinism) is what is meant in acid-oriented Rock
by a statement such as "I will choose free will."

_________________

The non-initiate is a prisoner of cosmic determinism who mistakenly thinks
they are free; the peak-state advanced initiation reveals that one's thoughts
are frozen into the cosmic prison; the transcendent divine lifting-up beyond
that realization gives the mind something that has historically been called
"true freedom", very different than mere naive assumption of freewill
-- the naive assumption of freewill is utterly dead and impossible after
mystically experiencing the deterministic true situation.

Rush and fatalism: the solution to free will vs. determinism

Come see what your fate might have in store. Roll the bones, and deal those
cards, you dogs. Don't panic - it's only logic, you mad machines.

>Many of Rush's works deal with the concept of people who deny the hard
evidence of their senses for intangibles, whether it be a demagogue's rantings,
the peddling of religious faith, etc... Freewill goes to the heart of this
matter, and the irony (and wit) of Neil stating what he does in the above quote
seems to go right over people's heads, as they fall victim to the very mindset
he lambastes in that song.

Neil's a cosmic bullshitter because he wants to preserve the mystery of the
lyrics, so that they may unfold their enfolded meaning as the seeker goes
through their own Discovery about the nature of self-control and the
relationship of the self and world.

[commitment to invidual freedom and commitment to deliberate Belief in free
will is different than philosophical belief in metaphysical free will. The
challenge here is to claim personal power, as against the omnipotent Ground of
Being/Tao, even when one has seen the illusory nature of personal egoic power.]

There are those who think that life is nothing left to chance,
A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance. [ego death is holy
horror/terror, radical loss of control of one's will and mind, saved through
prayer for salvation from the control vortex]

A planet of playthings,
We dance on the strings [compare/search "puppet" theme, as in
Twilight Zone and cover of Farewell to Kings]
Of powers we cannot conceive. [can be heard "powers we can
un-perceive"]

"The stars aren't aligned
Or the gods are malign"
Blame is better to give than receive.

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still haven't [sung "have"] made a
choice. [difference between printed and sung lyrics emphasizes *problematic*
nature of free will in the face of the illusory nature of ego-power]
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose Free Will. [heavy irony - free will is anything but clear; it is
centrally problematic]

There are those who think that they were dealt a losing hand,
The cards were stacked against them
They weren't born in lotus-land. [cards are shown on album Moving Pictures;
search "card"]

All preordained [fatalism]
A prisoner in chains [search "prison", "free"]
A victim of venomous fate. [search "fate"]
Kicked in the face,
You can't [sung "can"] pray for a place [search "pray"]
In heaven's unearthly estate.

Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete.
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt that's far too fleet. [search "fortune"]

The clouds prepare for battle
In the dark and brooding silence.
Bruised and sullen stormclouds
Have the light of day obscured.
Looming low and ominous
In twilight premature
Thunderheads are rumbling
In a distant overture...

All at once, the clouds are parted.
Light streams down in bright unbroken beams...

Follow men's eyes as they look to the skies.
The shifting shafts of shining weave the fabric of their dreams...

We are secrets to each other
Each one's life a novel
No-one else has read.
Even joined in bonds of love,
We're linked to one another
By such slender threads. [compare puppet strings, dance on a string, strings of
the toy puppet king. "a planet of playthings" vs. "planets to
each other" as in, we are as our own independent gods/controllers despite
our mutual puppethood with regard to the Ground of Being]

We are planets to each other,
Drifting in our orbits
To a brief eclipse.
Each of us a world apart,
Alone and yet together,
Like two passing ships.

Just between us,
I think it's time for us to recognize
The differences we sometimes fear to show.
Just between us,
I think it's time for us to realize,
The spaces in between
Leave room for you and I to grow.

[compare this verse to the verse in Limelight:]

We are strangers to each other,
Full of sliding panels,
An illusion show.
Acting well-rehearsed routines
Or playing from the heart?
It's hard for one to know.

We are islands to each other,
Building hopeful bridges
On a troubled sea.
Some are burned or swept away,
Some we would not choose,
But we're not always free. [especially we do not feel free during the altered
state of mystic ego death]

Who's come to slay the dragon, [ego as prime originator of control-actions]
Come to watch him fall? [like Icarus fell when flying too close to the sun]
Making arrows out of pointed words, [these lyrics are crafted to kill the ego]
Giant killers at the call?
Too much fuss and bother,
Too much complication and confusion.
Peel away the mystery, [search "mystery"]
Here's a clue to some real motivation. [search "clue"]

All there really is,
The two of us,
And we both know why we've come along.
Nothing to explain,
It's a part of us
To be found within a song.

What happened to our innocence,
Did it go out of style?
Along with our naivete,
No longer a child. [after ego-death insight, no longer innocent belief in inner
ego-agent]
Different eyes see different things, [altered-state eye sees in
mystic-perception mode]
Different hearts beat [correction - peal] on different strings.
But there are times
For you and me, when all such things agree.

When the ebbing tide retreats
Along the rocky shoreline,
It leaves a trail of tidal pools [separate egos]
In a short-lived galaxy.
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society.

A simple kind [of?] mirror
To reflect upon our own.
All the busy little creatures [us egos]
Chasing out their destinies. [search destiny, fate themes]
Living in the pools,
They soon forget about the sea... [forget about mystic unity consciousness,
about metaphysical oneness]

Wheels within wheels in a spiral array, [common altered-state mystic theme
of whirling - search "spiral"]
A pattern so grand and complex, [mystic pattern re-perception enables seeing things
in a transcendent rather than egoic pattern]
Time after time we lose sight of the way,
Our causes can't see their effects. [questioning cause and effect - is
causality real, given that fatalism is true?]

A quantum leap forward
In time and in space,
The universe learned to expand.

Myths and the magic,
Triumphant and tragic, [discovery of cybernetic truth, ego death, is a triumph
that is a tragedy for the ego; you have victory over delusion of personal
sovereignty, victory over the delusion of moral self-responsibility, but
tragedy in that your every action was deluded and you really have no separate
existence or responsibility and are just a puppet totally defined in every act
by the all-encompassing ground of being that produces everyone and every
action. Tragedy is the act of becoming conscious of your status as a helpless
slave of the universal process]
A mechanized world out of hand. ["mechanized" alludes to cybernetic
fatedness]

Computerized clinic
For superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band. [compare puppethood of android in song "The
Body Electric"; "a planet of playthings, we dance on the
strings of powers we cannot perceive"]

In their own image, [according to egoic pattern-perception rather than
mystic re-perceived mode of interpretation]
Their world is fashioned
No wonder they don't understand. [they don't understand themselves (the nature
of ego and its virtual power); they don't understand the world either]

Science, like nature
Must also be tamed
With a view toward its preservation. [consider "LSD, the ultimate product
of science, must be tamed, along with preserving the ego and transcending
rather than destroying it"]
Given the same
State of integrity,
It will surely serve us well. [for "science" and "it",
consider both LSD and the ego. The ego, once understood and reconciled with
cybernetic truth so as to gain some integrity, can surely serve us well]

Art as expression,
Not as market campaigns
Will still capture our imaginations.
Given the same
State of integrity,
It will surely help us along.

The most endangered species,
The honest man, [enlightened, Experienced] [the ego is dishonest, a sham, a
delusion; the honest man is the enlightened man in whose mind the ego has been
transcended, having seen through the delusion of personal sovereignty] [in the
mystic altered state, one's integrity is endangered and destroyed in its old
egoic pattern, then granted survival and integrity in a new, transcendent form]
Will still survive annihilation. [to survive the mystic altered state,
especially if coming away with the transcendent mental model, is to survive
annihilation of the ego. In this sort of annihilation, the ego is destroyed as
a delusion, but preserved and transcended as a cognitive structure]
Forming a world
State of integrity,
Sensitive, open and strong.

Wave after wave will flow with the tide, and bury the world as it does.
["wave after wave" -- alludes to perceptual distortion -- search
"wave"; perm. waves, "the waves roll by so fast",
"wall street shuffles there... flowing hair"]
Tide after tide will flow and recede, leaving life to go on as it was... [the
last phrase seems similar to the end of Fountain of Lamneth (The Fountain);
even after the peak experience of ego death and enlightenment, "still I
am", "life is just a candle and a dream must give it flame"]

Neil Peart (Rush Backstage Club newsletter, December 1985): "Tom Sawyer
was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois, an excellent lyricist who
wrote the lyrics for Max Webster. His original lyrics were kind of a portrait
of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world
wide-eyed and purposeful. [wide eye: read dilated eyes] I added the themes of
reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people
are and what others perceive them to be - namely me I guess." [he's not
usually perceived as an acid-oriented consciousness researcher]

My uncle has a country place
That no one knows about.
He says it used to be a farm,
Before the Motor Law.
And on Sundays I elude the Eyes, [I take LSD every Sunday]
And hop the Turbine Freight [common mystic altered-state theme of whirling]
To far outside the Wire, [search "wire"]
Where my white-haired uncle waits. [Wings sang "We're so sorry, uncle
Albert" - Albert Hofmann, discoverer of LSD]

Jump to the ground [Ground of Being]
As the Turbo slows to cross the Borderline. [compare Cygnus X-1, crossing the
event horizon of the control singularity in the control vortex of ego death]
Run like the wind,
As excitement shivers up and down my spine. [altered-state energy/tremors]
Down in his barn,
My uncle preserved for me an old machine,
For fifty-odd years. [1938 (orig. synth. of LSD) + 50 = 1988; this song was
written 40 years later]
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream.

I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car.
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better, vanished time. [time perceived as unreal in altered state]
I fire up the willing engine, [good phrase - egoic will is a "will-ing
engine" that appears to drive the mind]
Responding with a roar.
Tires spitting gravel,
I commit my weekly crime... [I do my weekly illegal LSD session] [sung as
"commit my weekly crying; lsd often triggers intense emotion]

[Below: notice the bowed head, the egg outline around the whole body, and
the halo with rays centered around the 3rd eye, the pineal gland. Also, flames,
and the 3rd eye shown as a brilliant white light.]

(artist http://www.alexgrey.com/)

Suddenly ahead of me,
Across the mountainside, [search "mountain"]
A gleaming alloy air-car
Shoots towards me, two lanes wide. [the wide path]
I spin around with shrieking tires, [vortex-panic theme]
To run the deadly race, [ego death, race against one's own power]
Go screaming through the valley [compare valley and mountain in Necromancer]
As another joins the chase. [another = the enemy within. compare "two to
one" in Chemistry; the virtual ego as redundant/ superfluous addition]

Drive like the wind, [add "Driven" lyrics. Driven like the wind,
one's will is pushed along by the Ground of Being.]
Straining the limits of machine and man. [ego as android; peak session is a
maximum cognitive strain]
Laughing out loud
With fear and hope, I've got a desperate plan. [search "fear" -
Twilight Zone, Enemy Within, Cygnus, Fear, Body Electric] [search
"desperat" -- no one at the bridge]
At the one-lane bridge [the narrow path; compare Jesus as narrow requirement of
restriction to moral compassionate action for entering heaven viably without
extremely transgressing moral control in sacrifice]
I leave the giants stranded at the riverside. [search "river"]
Race back to the farm, to dream with my uncle at the fireside.

[This is a metaphor for altered-state perception of oneself as an
actor-agent inside the mind.]

Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage. [mystic insight into the problem of
perception/representation, perceptual mental constructs]

Cast in this unlikely role, [compare song Entre Nous] [the ego-agent is
logically impossible]
Ill-equipped to act, [the actor agent can't exist and one is frozen in
spacetime unable to really change any action]
With insufficient tact,
One must put up barriers [must retain ego-boundary and egoic thinking to stay
viable and intact in the form of a coherent person]
To keep oneself intact. [ego dis-integration and cognitive fragmentation during
the dissociative state -- loose binding of mental constructs]

Living in the Limelight,
The universal dream [egoic consciousness is a shared dream]
For those who wish to seem. [to seem like inner primary controller-agents
rather than puppets of the Ground of Being]
Those who wish to be [who want to be a genuine agent or understand
control-agency]
Must put aside the alienation,
Get on with the fascination, [don't be alienated from LSD; be fascinated with
it]
The real relation,
The underlying theme. ["look for the *underlying* not the surface themes
of these lyrics]

Living in a fisheye lens, [again compare the covers of Rubber Soul and Are
You Experienced, and "sunlight on chrome" -- mystic altered-state
perceptual distortion]
Caught in the camera eye.
I have no heart to lie, [ego-agent at the core of egoic thinking is a lie, an
illusion]
I can't pretend a stranger [in the mystic state the ego is alienated, a
stranger, a remote fiction]
Is a long-awaited friend.

All the world's indeed a stage,
And we are merely players, [we ego-agents are illusory]
Performers and portrayers,
Each another's audience
Outside the gilded cage. [of mind, of the wall of perception] [search
"prison", "cage"]

Grim-faced and forbidding,
Their faces closed tight,
An angular mass of New Yorkers
Pacing in rhythm,
Race the oncoming night,
They chase through the streets of Manhattan.
Headfirst humanity,
Pause at a light,
Then flow through the streets of the city.

They seem oblivious
To a soft spring rain,
Like an English rain
So light, yet endless
From a leaden sky.

The buildings are lost in the limitless rise. [search "building"]
My feet catch the pulse and the purposeful stride.

I feel the sense of possibilities, [during the altered state]
I feel the wrench of hard realities. [the hard reality is that we are helpless
prisoners encased in the spacetime block]
The focus is sharp in the city.

Wide-angle watcher
On life's ancient tales,
Steeped in the history of London.

Mist in the streets of Westminster.
Wistful and weathered,
The pride still prevails, [pride = egoic thinking, or commitment to
individualism]
Alive in the streets of the city.

Are they oblivious
To this quality?
A quality
Of light unique to
Every city's streets.

Pavements may teem with intense energy, [compare "wall street
shuffles" in song "Going Bald"] [search "energy"]
But the city is calm in this violent sea. [search "sea"]

[This is about the drug war/ drug inquisition -- and demonization of
recreational drugs, particularly LSD.]

The night is black, without a moon.
The air is thick and still.
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torchlit hill.

Features distorted in the flickering light, [distorted face-perception in
the altered state]
Faces are twisted and grotesque.
Silent and stern in the sweltering night,
The mob moves like demons possesed.
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right,
Confident their ways are best.

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will.
Madmen fed on fear and lies [about drugs and drug users]
To beat and burn and kill.

They say there are strangers who threaten us,
Our immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness to danger us
In our theatres and bookstore shelves,
That those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves. [the average hold down the advanced
consciousness-researchers who want to use LSD]

Quick to judge,
Quick to anger,
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand. [the average people are ignorant about LSD,
prejudiced against it, and afraid of it.]

[Compare "The Body Electric" - in the altered state one becomes as
a cybernetic-controlled android.]

Unstable condition, [instability of control and cognition in the
loose-binding state of mystic cognition]
A symptom of life,
Of mental and environmental change.
Atmosphereic disturbance,
The feverish flux [search for humidity-related strings] [flux: search for
"wave" and "flow" and "shift"; alludes to
perceptual distortion of LSD]
Of human interface and interchange.

The impulse is pure;
Sometimes our circuits get shorted [in mystic ego death, control-power
short-circuits and defeats itself]
By external interference.
Signals get crossed [next album named "Signals", full of encoded
allusions/signals. Search "cross" - black hole vortex marked by 6
stars who form a cross]
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence. [the egoic-control core is rationally incoherent. Our
assumption of primary self-control does not make sense.] [compare The Enemy
Within]

A tired mind become a shape shifter, [altered-state perceptual distortion]
Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm. [get high above average
ego-consciousness, in the mystic altered state]

Leave out the fiction, [the fiction of ego and egoic control power]
The fact is, this friction
Will only be won by persistence. [must have many LSD sessions, to study and
understand control cybernetics and Cybernetic Truth]
Leave out conditions,
Courageous convictions
Will drag the dream into existence.

A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a soft filter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm...

Signals has far more tricks with the recording of the lyrics, than Grace
Under Pressure. In fact, as far as recording techniques, Signals stands alone
as an experiment in digitally processing the lyrics -- cutting and pasting,
chipmonk effects, and apparently some backwards snippets which I want to check
out on a 4-track.

These types of signals leap out when you are an abnormally receptive state
of mind, wearing headphones. The normal state of mind misses these entirely,
but they *jump* out in the altered state, a loud break in the pattern.

There are 3 mentions of cutting: blade, sword, chop... These are meant to
trigger doubt about self-control. Also they allude to the ancient religion of
the devouring mother/Baal/semitic religion, of sacrificing one's firstborn son
as a transgression of one's own will in order to prove subservience of one's
will to the will of the worshipped god.

"He's got to walk a fine line
and keep his self-control" (self-control becomes problematic in the mystic
altered state)

"Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps" (ego's power and controllership is trumped by
the time axis)

"The boy lies in the grass with one blade
stuck between his teeth
A vague sensation quickens (this quickening is the sense of alert excitement
and dread at coming ego-death insights)
in his young and restless heart" (for heart palpitations, hear the end of
Cygnus X-1)

The vocals on this song, and maybe others on the album, are treated through
"modulated delay", which is a single echo but one that rises in pitch
with shortening of delay, and then falls in pitch, with lengthening of delay.
This creates a complex, intriguing sound when listening closely to the lyrics
while on LSD, and provides a sonic thicket to mask double-entendre mumbling and
timing of the singing.

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border ["uninsulated border" - ego-boundary
disappearance in altered state]
In between the bright lights [bright lights and flashing are common
dissociative-state phenomena]
And the far unlit unknown [can be heard "foreign"]

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided [strong allusion to fatalism and illusory nature of free
personal choosing]
Detached and subdivided [cognitive dis-integration/fragmentation in
dissociative altered state]
In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone [read "tripper",
"consciousness researcher"]

Subdivisions
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out [in altered state, must conform to moral restraint, or
be cast into chaos and out of studying Cybernetic Truth]
Subdivisions
In the basement bars ["bowels" - allusion to repression and casting
out of gays]
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth [ironic wording -- cybernetic truth has a strange
attractor, the vortex of ego death insight, but this attractor is
"unattractive" -- loss of personal control and becoming a helpless
puppet are dangerous and unappealing -- you have to find an escape, such as
prayer and substitute victim of the vortex; despite impossibility of moral
agency and restraint, must seek help to prop up the crucially needed delusion
of moral agency]
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction [timelessness perception; time freezing.] [sung
"timeless soul attraction"]
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night [all-night LSD session]

Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps [search "trap", "prison",
"caught"] [ego's power is especially trumped by *time*, by the
permanent presetness of all events in the future, by the isolation of ego's
power in each moment and inability of control to reach across time]
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight

Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights... [search
"memory"]

0:45 one Blade!!! stuck between his teeth -- 'blade' is jiggled
(sword of prajna that you grab and threaten sacrifice with)
(be sure to walk a fine line and keep your self-control!)
1:49 'sun BrOwNeD legs' is jiggled
2:07 unmovING [jiggled] staring at the SKYIND/signed [backwards?]
2:11 his mother starts to CRAWL him as a *hawk* goes soaring by
2:15 boy pulls *down* his baseball cap UNCOVERS *up* his Eyes
2:37 autumn words and *in disguise*

A hot and windy August afternoon [search "wind" theme]
Has the trees in constant motion
With a flash of silver leaves
As they're rocking in the breeze [altered-state perceptual distortion/waving]
[search "breeze", "wind"]

The boy lies in the grass with one blade [sacrificial blade, flaming sword
guarding secret of Cybernetic Truth]
Stuck between his teeth
A vague sensation quickens [attractor vortex of oncoming ego-death insight]
In his young and restless heart
And a bright and nameless vision
Has him longing to depart [disappearance of ego]

You move me -- [the ground of being moves the ego/will, which only then
moves personal action. I don't move my will; the ground of being drives me like
a puppet]
You move me
With your buildings and your eyes [search "building"]
Autumn woods and winter skies [sung so that it can be heard as "words...
in disguise"] [compare "skiing fast through the words/woods",
another instance of digital manipulation]
You move me
You move me
Open sea and city lights [search "light"]
Busy streets and dizzy heights [high in altered state is dizzying.
"whirling" theme]
You call me
You call me -- [vortex-attractor of ego death]

The fawn-eyed girl with sun-browned legs
Dances on the edge of his dream
And her voice rings in his ears
Like the music of the spheres

The boy lies in the grass, unmoving
Staring at the sky
His mother starts to call him ["mother" could be ground of being
calling one to recognize its omnipotence over one's stream of will-actions]
As a hawk goes soaring by [sounds like "hot-cold"]
The boy pulls down his baseball cap [directs attention to above-the-head]
And covers up his eyes [can be heard "un-covers up his eyes" as in
opened the 3rd eye]

Too many hands on my time
Too many feelings
Too many things on my mind
When I leave I don't know
What I'm hoping to find
When I leave I don't know
What I'm leaving behind... [leaving behind ego-illusion and egoic thinking]

Neil Peart (Guitar for the Practicing Musician, 1986): "'Chemistry' was
a true collaboration between the three of us. The other guys had a couple of
key phrases they wanted to express, so they gave me the music. That was easy
because all the groundwork was done. Playing with words comes so much easier
than having to dream up the whole thing."

The above passage is not clear at all. "Gave me the music" could
mean either "gave me the task of writing the music", or "gave me
the completed music". Alex and Geddy's "key phrases" could have
been either musical phrases or lyrical phrases. If "key phrases"
means *lyrical phrases", then I would assume that Alex and Geddy
contributed phrases that allude to LSD experiencing, supporting the proposition
that all three band members used LSD and understood the idea of
double-entendres alluding to LSD experiences. I am committing to the assumption
that all three band members collaborate in the LSD layer of allusion.

>I find it humorous, to say the least, that someone should suggest that
Neil Peart's lyrics in the mid 70's were drug induced, however, I don't see the
benefit in irrational attacks on someone arguments, when they are logical and
supported.

>Are you saying the lyrics were not drug-oriented? I wouldn't be
surprised if some were, though not upset. Many musicians wrote music in the
70's in an altered state. I kind of like the hypothesis too, even if I don't
partake in drug taking. (You don't need to appreciate the music.) AAMOF, I
think more music should be written in an altered state. I'd buy it, if it is
done tastefully. Hmmm, "A Passage to Bangkok" was about a train ride?
Ummmm, not really. Party on Neil.

"Chemistry" is certainly about *drug* chemistry, at some level.
"Reaction burning 'puh' hot-ter". I have already fully explained this
in my exegesis of _Signals_ when I posted all the Rush lyrics.

Pointer: an unsophisticated drug song points to the drug itself. A
sophisticated drug song points to the psychological phenomena accessed through
the drug.

The highest way to use pot is 3 hours into an LSD trip. Watch out -- it's
wacky. Paranoia and prayer are coming your way, and there is no escape from
this fatedness. Isn't it astonishing and wonderful! Especially if you consider
your powerful freedom.

Zen moment:

You have those specific "free" actions that the world forced upon
you eternally, from the moment-beyond-time at which all actions simultaneously
popped into being.

I am master of my fate, governor of my will. No one is in control of me. I
am the one who is in control of me. Alan Watts would formulate the puzzle thus:
"The power of freedom there is, but no one who wields it."

The above LSD blotter shows the Discovery of LSD by Chemistry scientist
Albert Hofmann; he is holding the Cask of '43 (a beaker). He discovered LSD in
1943. "Pure" refers to highly pure LSD, such as "pure
Sandoz". Sandoz is the pharmaceutical company where Albert Hofmann worked.

The surface meaning of "two to one" is the ratio of hydrogen to
oxygen in water. But with "reflection on the water" comes the idea of
the ego-symbol or inner homunculus steersman as being redundant and logically
superfluous; seeing as much is part of ego death and enlightenment.

In the mystic state of perception, the mind perceives the self-symbol as
such, clearly differentiating it from the person who is represented by that
dynamic symbol. The map is not the territory; specifically, the mental
construct or mental representation of me is not, itself, me. This is related to
the ominous terror of seeing your double, as the homunculous inside your mind,
at which point you experience ego death. "Reflection on the water"
refers to the wiggly, waving effect of seeing the wall of perceptions as such.

Compare the metaphors for metaperception, "behind the waterfall",
"camera eye", "fisheye lens", and "sunlight on
chrome", not to mention "waves roll by", "permanent
waves", and "wave after wave".

The perceptions stand out, waving like a flag, saying "ceci n'est pas
un monde" -- these symbols interfacing you with the world are not,
themselves, the world represented. The mystic state is a state of a chemical
computer, affected by chemical triggers, a reaction burning p otter than the
default cognitive mode.

1:12+ 'invisibly' is warped
1:28+ 'mysteriously' is warped or backwards
1:44++ BURNING POT ter
1:46 '2 to 1' sounds more like "due to a reflection on the
water"
1:55+ H to O has been tampered to sound like "H to whoa!/woe" - can
be
heard as "each to All"
2:16 "seems to" is speeded up, "me' is slowed down
2:44 'received' is altered somehow -- jiggled
3:06++ 'naturally' contains the word 'backwards' patched digitally
into the middle -- naturBACKWARDSally
3:17+ one too FREE addict of subtraction (when tripping, you
feel alarmingly unconstrained) (in the mystic
state, the ego loses its substantiality -- ego-entity
disappears hence "subtraction")
3:26+ 'sound' (speeded) on 'sound' (slowed)
3:47 'another' is speeded up
3:55 'seems' is speeded up
4:34+ Some words are spoken through a vocorder (voice-modulated
choral synth).
It sounds very slightly like "acid - really... llls ss ddd".
Any other suggestions? I've played with a vocorder so I
know what this process sounds like. They are very cool.

Signals transmitted [this album is about altered-state encoding and
decoding, alluding to mystic dissociative phenomena]
Message received
Reaction making impact
Invisibly

Eye to I
Reaction burning hotter ["burning p-hotter"; "burning pot -
er"; that is, smoking marijuana along with taking LSD]
Two to one [can be heard "due to a"]
Reflection on the water
H to O [can be heard "each to all"; each individual ego is joined
with the All] [one of these "H to O" occurrences can be heard as H to
woe, H to whoa!]
No flow without the other
Oh but how
Do they make contact
With one another? [This "they" does not refer to merely two people;
rather, the higher meaning is questioning the relation between the real self
and the mental construct representing oneself. The "seeing one's double
and thus dying" experience also involves wondering about the relation
between the experience of being a controller-entity, versus the actual control
that really does exist but not in the naively conceived way.]

Elemental empathy
A change of synergy
Music making contact
Naturally ["nat-backwards-ally"]

One, two, three -- ["one too free" - the loosened mind suspends
its moral control system and one becomes alarmingly unrestrained]
Add without subtraction ["addict of subtraction" -- I am addicted to
losing my ego every week during tripping]
Sound on sound ["unsound"; loss of stable egoic cognition,
psychotomimetic]
Multiplied reaction
H to O [see notes on "H to O" above]
No flow without the other
Oh but how
Do we make contact
With one another? [again, taking "reflection on the water" into
account and "I looked in the mirror", consider the word
"we" here as referring not to two people, but rather, the actual
person and the mental construct representing the person, particularly the
mental construct of the ego as controlling agent, as homunculus/steersman,
puller of one's own puppet strings.]

Could someone with a 4-track please listen to 3:09 backwards on Digital Man
and email me about what it says? Unfortunately I sold my 4-track. "he
won't need a bed" Thanks! Or maybe someone already knows. That damn harsh
digital "bzeeew" keyboard sound *just coincidentally* happens right
at the same time as the reversed phrase, every time.

His world is under observation
We monitor his station
Under faces and the places
Where he traces points of view

He picks up scraps of conversation
Radio and radiation
From the dancers and romancers
With the answers -- but no clue [search "clue"]

He'd love to spend the night in Zion
He's been a long while in Babylon
He'd like a lover's wings to fly on
To a tropic isle of Avalon

His world is under anaesthetic
Subdivided and synthetic
His reliance on the giants
In the science of the day

He picks up scraps of information
He's adept at adaptation
'Cause for strangers and arrangers
Constant change is here to stay

He's got a force field and a flexible plan
He's got a date with fate in a black sedan
He plays fast forward for as long as he can
But he won't need a bed
He's a digital man

We've got nothing to fear -- but fear itself?
Not pain or failure, not fatal tragedy? [search
"fat"/"fate"]
Not the faulty units in this mad machinery? [during altered state, egoic thinking
is suspended/broken, its logic is seen as broken/faulty all the time]
Not the broken contacts in emotional chemistry?

With an iron fist in a velvet glove
We are sheltered under the gun [consider Jesus as sheltering and protecting
moral agency though egoic moral agency is logically impossible]
In the glory game on the power train [the stream/worldline of personal
control-actions along the time axis; glory/power eventually has to be assigned
to the Ground of Being rather than the ego-agent who is merely illusory]
Thy kingdom's will be done [I am only able to will what the Ground of Being
forces me to will]

And the things that we fear are a weapon to be held against us... [fear
during tripping is fear of one's power backfiring]

He's not afraid of your judgement
He knows of horrors worse than your Hell [becoming a helpless puppet of the
Ground of Being is hellish]
He's a little bit afraid of dying -- [ego death]
But he's a lot more afraid of your lying [I am moderately afraid of ego death
and loss of control, of puppethood, but that's sure better than living in the
lie of ego-agency]

And the things that he fears are a weapon to be held against him...

Can any part of life -- be larger than life? [the ego-agent illusion is the
"part", the whole of life is the Ground of Being that has glory/power
over the illusory ego-agent]
Even love must be limited by time [ego power is trumped by the fixity of all
actions in time including future personal will-acts]
And those who push us down that they might climb -- [consider power tradeoff of
divine ruler/god and created ego-agent]
Is any killer worth more than his crime? [consider ego death and the
sacrificial virtual "death" of Isaac and Jesus; consider Jesus as a
study in the invalid/problematic concept of moral agency, criminality, guilt,
innocence, and punishment] [consider sacrificial transgression of one's will --
at the cost of killing one's firstborn son, one establishes/demonstrates
transcendence of egoic cybernetic restraint and understanding of Cybernetic Truth
-- the lyric would be asking, "is that approach worth it?" "is
Truth worth killing for, because it secures Cybernetic Truth for the
killer?"]

Like a steely blade in a silken sheath ["blade" is meant to alarm
tripper about self-control]
We don't see what they're made of
They shout about love, but when push comes to shove
They live for the things they're afraid of [afraid of ego?]

And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them...
[what prohibitionist Christians fear is knowledge of cybernetic truth about
illusory nature of moral agency and invalidity of punishment/reward]

1:45+ he's a rider and a ranger and a young boy bearing arms [baring arms /
very harmless]
2:13+ trying to save the day for the overman
2:17 end of 'the' is slowed down
3:04 again, 'old world man' is 'overman'
3:10 'third world man' is 'ferver man'

He's a rebel and a runner [tripper]
He's a signal turning green
He's a restless young romantic
Wants to run the big machine

He's got a problem with his poisons [LSD renders self-control problematic]
But you know he'll find a cure [pray for supplication, will find a prop for
impossible moral agency; will find a way to retain viable control in the
altered state]
He's cleaning up his systems [see "guidance systems breakdown" in
song "The Body Electric"]
To keep his nature pure [rather than deluded by illusion/lie of egoic
control-agent]

Learning to match the beat of the Old World man
Learning to catch the heat of the Third World man

He's got to make his own mistakes
And learn to mend the mess he makes
He's old enough to know what's right [mention of moral control system]
But young enough not to choose it [has not yet understood importance of
committing to compassion rather than sacrificial transgression]
He's noble enough to win the world
But weak enough to lose it
He's a New World man...

He's a radio receiver
Turned to factories and farms
He's a writer and arranger ["a rider and a ranger" of the animal-ego
- Ken Wilber's "centauric consciousness"]
And a young boy bearing arms [sung as "young boy very harmless"]

He's got a problem with his power [egoic control power becomes problematic
during altered state]
With weapons on patrol
He's got to walk a fine line
And keep his self-control [central theme is problematic nature of self-control]

Trying to save the day for the Old World man
Trying to pave the way for the Third World man

He's not concerned with yesterday
He knows constant change is here today ["to stay"?]
He's noble enough to know what's right
But weak enough not to choose it
He's wise enough to win the world
But fool enough to lose it
He's a New World man...

[This song is designed to trigger ominous fear and terrifying ego death.]

1:01 - circling CHOPers SLASH the night (uh oh, oh shit don't lose control)
1:22 "at the present time, we have no major problems..." (no major
problems.. oh shit!!!)
1:58 as the sun and the Drama!! start to mount (try dropping at midnight,
you'll be there)
2:28 - eXcitement so thick [speeded up] - you can CUT it with a KNIFE!!!

Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline

Circling choppers slash the night [whirling blade of flaming sword of ego
death, sacrificial transgression of moral control system during altered state -
the thought of being willing to prove subservience (and transcendence of moral
restraint) by killing]
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams

Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show [that would be the deluded ego who seems to
wield primary power]
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon [dragon = animalistic deluded self-control core,
with its tangled logic]

Crackling speakers, voices tense [altered-state hearing]
Resume the final count [control vortex approaches, "end of the world"
feeling]
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount [fear mounts, anxiety ramps us as
ego-death insight approaches and one is on the verge of suddenly completely
losing control]

The air is charged -- a humid, motionless mass [search "humid",
"atmospher"]
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick -- you could cut it with a knife ["blade" mention
again]
Technology -- high, on the leading edge of life [LSD = technology high]

The earth beneath us starts to tremble ["starts to trip - ble"]
[Ground of Being, nervous tremors]
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding

Scorching blast of golden fire [flaming sword of prajna that blocks the Tree
of Life; to approach cybernetic Truth, your ego-power must die and you become
dangerous helpless puppet]
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the ["that"?] awesome sound

Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination -- with the eyes of the world
We stare...

An ill wind comes arising
Across the cities of the plain
There's no swimming in the heavy water -- [search "sea",
"ship"]
No singing in the acid rain [mention of "acid" as LSD]
Red alert
Red alert [ego-death control vortex is alarming]

It's so hard to stay together [cognitive dissociation, dis-integration of
mental constructs during altered state]
Passing through revolving doors ["door" = altered state, revolving =
common mystic-state theme of whirling]
We need someone to talk to
And someone to sweep the floors
Incomplete
Incomplete

The world weighs on my shoulders
But what am I to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy
But I worry about you

I know it makes on difference
To what you're going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you...

Cruising under your radar
Watching from satellites
Take a page from the red book
Keep them in your sights
Red alert
Red alert

Left and rights of passage
Black and whites of youth
Who can face the knowledge
That the truth is not the truth?
Obsolete
Absolute

Tried to believe
But you know it's no good
This is something
That just can't be understood

I remember
The shouts of joy
Skiing fast through the woods [digitally manipulated as "skiing fast
through the words". Compare "Autumn woods and winter skies" sung
so that it can be heard as "words... in disguise"]

[search "fear"] [refers to the dangerous work of using LSD
sessions to study ego death]

Things crawl in the darkness
That imagination spins
Needles at your nerve ends
Crawl like spiders on [under?] your skin

Pounding in your temples
And a surge of adrenaline
Every muscle tense -- to fence the enemy within

I'm not giving in to security under pressure
I'm not missing out on the promise of adventure
I'm not giving up on implausible dreams
Experience to extremes
Experience to extremes

Suspicious-looking stranger
Flashes you a dangerous grin
Shadows across your window
Was it only trees in the wind?

Every breath a static charge
A tongue that tastes like tin
Steely-eyed outside to hide the enemy within...

To you -- is it movement or is it action?
It is contact or just reaction?
And you -- revolution or just resistance?
Is it living, or just existence?
Yeah, you -- it takes a little more persistence
To get up and go the distance...

1001001 is the binary representation for the capital letter "I".
When you see the letter "I" on a computer that uses ASCII, you know
that somewhere in RAM is the voltage pattern high low low high low low high --
1001001. In the video, the protagonist is a prisoner attempting to escape from
some sort of prison. The number on his uniform is 1001001. If you convert this
to decimal, it is 73, and ASCII 73 is a capital I. This fits with "unit
one" referring to the ego, the "I", the self. The self is
largely just a mental construct mistakenly conceived as a substantial, truly
self-directing entity; to realize this is to experience ego death along with
loss of control and transgression of egoic morality.

One humanoid escapee [you have escaped your own accustomed, secure chains of
self-restraint and moral guidance]
One android on the run [one becomes consciously a helpless deterministic
android (though self-controlling and cybernetic)]
Seeking freedom beneath a lonely desert sun [seeking freedom, not *having*
freedom -- metaphysical freedom is impossible and there is no ego to be free]

Trying to change its program [changing from the egoic to the transcendent
conceptual system, yet the transcendent conceptual system is highly unstable,
at least initially]
Trying to change the mode -- crack the code [the code of egoic thinking about
self-control]
Images conflicting into data overload [conflict between egoic and transcendent mental
model of self, control-power, and world. overloaded with dis-integrated mental
data]

1-0-0-1-0-0-1
S.O.S. [pray that the Ground of Being that you now recognize as giving rise to
your every act of will is compassionate]
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
In distress [ego-death is completely distressful]
1-0-0-1-0-0

Memory banks unloading
Bytes break into bits [cognitive dis-integration, loose cognitive binding of
mental construct sets]
Unit One's in trouble and it's scared out of its wits [I am Unit One; that is
you peaking in an intense LSD session - Unit One is the ego. Ego death is
frightening and you are scared witless to realize that nothing restrains you
and you can't restrain the flow of willing that the Ground of Being injects
into you.]

Guidance systems break down [self-control cybernetic breakdown]
A struggle to exist -- to resist [hanging onto the ego-structure is almost
impossible in a sea of cognitive fragmentation and transcendent clarity of
thought and perception]

A pulse of dying power in a clenching plastic fist [on LSD, one's hand
appears as a cartoon representation only, and one's power is seen to arise
prior to oneself -- one's stream-of-will is given to oneself] [compare
"Well-weathered leather" in Red Barchetta]

It replays each of the days [memory flood]
A hundred years of routines [routines = accustomed egoic operating system;
these habitual cognitive structures and patterns of association are suspended
and dis-integrated in the mystic altered state, as per the "habit
suspension model" of psychedelic efficacy]
Bows its head and prays [search "pray" and "bow"] [in ego
death, your power becomes helpless and out of control; prayer to a
compassionate higher controller is needed for reset; hopeless and desperate
situation, with no option but to love, trust, and fear God as a personal higher
controller]
To the mother of all machines... mother of all machines [the Ground of Being,
the Tao that gives rise to every thought, every cybernetic control-action and
steering action, and every act of the will]

[about paranoia during LSD, feeling of being remotely monitored and
controlled by overpowering external controlling agents]

I see red
It hurts my head
Guess it must be something
That I read

It's the colour of your heartbeat
A rising summer sun
The battle lost -- or won [to win the battle against the dragon of the delusion
of personal ego-agency, one must *lose* and end up utterly powerless, a
helpless puppet -- who knows Cybernetic Truth]
The flash to fashion
And the pulse to passion
Feels red
Inside my head [hyperawareness/observation of one's own thoughts during altered
state]
And truth is often bitter [Cybernetic Truth is ego death; this is a bitter
victory of understanding requiring a great loss of power and freedom; power is
sacrificed to gain Truth]
Left unsaid
Said red red
Thinking about the overhead [directs attention up to the 3rd eye]
The underfed

We've got mars on the horizon
Says the national midnight star
(it's true)
What you believe is what you are [you believe in the delusion of egoic control
agency, you are delusion of ego]
A pair of dancing shoes
The soviets are the blues
The reds
Under your bed
Lying
In the darkness
Dead ahead [ego-death lies straight ahead, unavoidably, in the worldline
(stream of personal will-acts/choice-acts) in the form of the self-control
breakdown vortex]

And the mercury is rising [allusion to alchemy]
Barometer starts to fall [search "humid", "atmospher",
etc.]
You know it gets to us all [this is quite a line during an LSD+THC peak]
The pain that is learning
And the rain that is burning
Feel red
Still -- go ahead
You see black and white
And I see red
(not blue)

To live between a rock and a hard place
In between time [compare Twilight Zone: "Now the fourth dimension is
crossed", "Here where Time and Space collide"]
Cruising in prime time -- soaking up the cathode rays [prime time would be the
peak of the LSD session]

To live between the wars in our time
Living in real time [real time is frozen pre-set time]
Holding the good time -- Holding on to yesterdays...

You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding [spinning?] wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly [metaphor for how fragmented cognition appears
to pure awareness in mystic dissociative state]
Frozen in the fatal climb [clime/climate/environment] -- but the wheels of time
[frozen time. fatal climb: climbing into higher mystic perspective one
discovers fatal ego death. ego's power is trumped by time]
Just pass you by...

Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down

We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets' red glare
Down to "Brother can you spare --"
Another war -- another waste land
And another lost generation...

It slips between your hands like water
This living in real time ["real time" is mystic dissociative session]
A dizzying lifetime
Reeling by on celluloid [mystic altered-state perception as a screen of cartoon
constructs]

Struck between the eyes [directs attention to 3rd eye.]
By the big-time world [perceiving the the Ground of Being takes away your
delusion of power]
Walking uneasy streets [compare "wall street shuffle" and
"pavement" in other Rush songs]
Hiding beneath the sheets [consider that "sheet" is slang for 100
blotter hits of LSD]
Got to try and fill the void... [the lack of substantiality of ego]

Counterparts

What would be the counterparts? The ego as governor/creator
of actions, and the universal process as governor/creator of actions.

Stick It Out

Neil Peart ("Counterparts Radio Premiere"): It's
just a play on the words, really. "Stick It Out" meaning both a kind
of arrogant display, "stick it out", but also the endurance thing; if
you have a difficult thing to endure, stick it out and you get to the end. It
was the pun on both of those, really, so again the duality in the song is a bit
leaning both ways. The sense of forbearance, of holding back, and also the idea
of fortitude: stick it out, you know, survive. But that was more of a piece of
fun, that song I would say, both lyrically and musically it verges on parody,
and that was one I think we just had fun with, and lyrically I certainly did,
too. "Stick it out" and "spit it out" and all that was just
a bit of word play.

Trust to your insticts [in the mystic altered
state, you can relax egoic control and let the universal process be fully
dominant]
If it's safely restrained [but you lose control; this is dangerous and
terrifying]
Lightning reactions [compare Metallica's title of their most LSD-oriented album
"Ride the Lightning"]
Must be carefully trained [your reaction and skill with LSD must be carefully
developed, or you will lose control destructively when you discover that egoic
cybernetic self-control is a delusion and a hollow, impotent convention of
thinking]

Heat of the moment
Curse of the young [consider the ancient semitic religion of sacrifice of the
firstborn child, representing dedication to a god]
Spit out your anger
Don't swallow your tongue [alludes to schizophrenia; some insane people are at
risk of this]

Stick it out [struggle to maintain control through the night, during a long,
strenuous LSD session. Also can mean to stick out your head of egoic cybernetic
governorship so that it may be killed; hold out your controllership and look at
it, in order that it can be recognized and killed and transcended]

Don't swallow the poison [the poison is LSD, which kills ego]
Spit it out [spit out the LSD blotter. There is no point in saying this except
to an audience who uses LSD, so this song can't simply be read as a statement
against taking LSD]
Don't swallow your pride [Could mean "stay proud" or could be a
warning that you are bound to be humbled. Whatever is being implied here about
the proper attitude about pride, certainly the mention of pride here accords
with the centrality of pride, in the experience of ego death. Pride is the
false assumption that the ego is substantial and wields sovereign, independent
power and has metaphysical freedom and is the ultimate originator of one's
movements of the will. During the peak, when the consciousness researcher
discovers that all acts of will are forced upon the mind and are pre-set as part
of the universal process, the researcher is commonly forced to abandon pride
and pray for a good future rather than going berserk in destructive Dionysian
consciousness (consciousness of cybernetic helplessness).]
Stick it out
Don't swallow your anger
Spit it out
Don't swallow the lies [the only way to "not swallow the lies" -- the
delusion of ego -- is to use the mystic altered state. Thus, this phrase is
tantamount to saying "use the altered state"]

Natural reflex
Pendulum swing
You might be too dizzy [alludes to common mystic-state theme of
whirling/circling/spinning/vortex]
To do the right thing [see comments on "to make the wrong moves seem
right", below] [what is "right" is relative to what is valued:
egoic morality, or cybernetic truth; these two value systems inherently
conflict] [ego death, loss of control, and transgression of egoic morality are
main components of the altered state that occur together]

Trial under fire [insights about the delusion of egoic moral agency. Fire =
mystic-state consciousness]
Ultimate proof [the mind discovers insight about the illogic of egoic
power/freedom, and can prove this by radically violently transgressing the
egoic control system]
Moment of crisis [the peak of an LSD session is a moment, or revolutionary turning
point, of crisis: it is an ultimate crisis when egoic power logically
fails (fails the test of Reason); this crisis is the risk of going berserk
while "seeing the face of god"; that is, while understanding
cybernetic truth -- the truth of our metaphysical puppethood. How can you
become a morally nullified slave of the universe and still preserve your trust
in your actions in the near future?]
Don't swallow the truth [this lyric symmetry equates poison and truth; to
swallow LSD is to swallow truth and die (in ego death)]

Stick it out

Each time we bathe our reactions
In artificial light [LSD is mystic brilliant light, from a synthetic chemical
produced in lab reactions]
Each time we alter the focus [alludes to perceptual distortion of the mystic
state of perception]
To make the wrong moves seem right [moral agency and personal egoic
responsibility is seen as delusion in the mystic state; "wrong"
action, that is, transgressing moral restraint in the name of cybernetic truth
of metaphysical helplessness and slavehood, is "right" in that it
leads from the false world to reality and moral truth. Moral truth is the truth
about morality, which is to say that morality is a sham connected with the
delusion of substantial ego and metaphysical freedom.]

You get so used to deception [the mind gets so accustomed to the egoic mental
model and egoic mode of cognition]
You make yourself a nervous wreck [during the peak of the altered state, the
egoic way of thinking crashes, the mind becomes a nervous wreck, becomes panicky
as guidance systems break down and egoic power is recognized as merely an
illusion and delusion]
You get so used to surrender [mystic surrendering of egoic control in favor of
the recognized reality of the omnipotence of the universal process]
Running back to cover your neck [alludes to Bastille Day's guillotine that cuts
of the egoic head (head of state = cybernetics governorship)]

Stick it out

Test for Echo

The phrase and song "test for echo" do have
allusions to the mystic altered state. For example, "some kind of trouble
on the video screen" alludes to the ominous premonition of impending ego
death/ loss of control, and to perceptual hyperconsciousness in which
representations of objects are perceived as representations rather than objects.
To test for echo is to look for substantial power-wielding ego and fail to find
it; compare Metallica's "hear the silence so loud" in the album Ride
the Lightning.

Driven

Driven up and down in circles [the driver, the
cybernetic steersman which is ego, becomes consciously merely a driven cog,
during the mystic altered state]
Skidding down a road of black ice [when you drive on black ice, you lose
control, which is what happens in the mystic altered state]
Staring in and out storm windows [mystic state = storm. Compare storm in No One
at the Bridge] [another allusion to eyes -- "with the eyes of the world we
stare", "coal-black eyes", "magic prism eyes", boy
with giant dilated binocular eyes, "invisible to telescopic eye",
etc.]
Driven to a fool's paradise [the mystic state is a fool's paradise; it is
foolish to enter there, where you will die and be hung upside-down]

But it's my turn to drive

Driven to the margin of error [egoic model of self and world is an error on a
grand scale]
Driven to the edge of control [alludes to loss of control (or loss of delusion
of control, or loss of egoic mode of self-control) in the mystic altered state]
Driven to the margin of terror [ego death and loss of control bring terror of
being forced by the ultimately controlling universe to go berserk, to
transgress one's deepest restraints and personal values]
Driven to the edge of a deep, dark hole [compare "the maelstrom is
near" in No One at the Bridge] [the hole is the emptiness of the
ego-homunculus]

Driven day and night in circles [yet another allusion to the common
mystic-state theme of whirling] [notice "night" -- alludes to the
norm of tripping during the night, all night]
Spinning like a whirlwind of leaves ["whirling" again]
["leaves" implies cognitive fragmentation rather than stable static
mental structures as the tree would be]
Stealing in and out back alleys
Driven to another den of thieves

But it's my turn to drive

Driven in -- Driven to the edge
Driven out -- On the thin end of the wedge
Driven off -- By things I've never seen [this would be the ego -- look all you
want, there is no ego entity who wields power]
Driven on -- By the road to somewhere I've never been

It's my turn to drive

The road unwinds towards me [the road of mystic path points toward
understanding the ego delusion]
What was there is gone [egoic existence was seemingly present, but now is
recognized as illusion. Also, during altered state, egoic cognitive structure
is largely suspended and disintegrated, along with all static mental
structures]
The road unwinds before me [in the block universe, the time dimension and its
contents are permanently fixed in place, so that my personal worldline of past
and future actions is already in place, unwound, laid out at each particular
point in time, before I even arrive at that point in time. My worldline is laid
out prior to my arrival at each point in my worldline]
And I go riding on [compare "still I am" at the end of Fountain of
Lamneth; even after ego death, ego as cognitive structure remains (now with
caveats)]

Virtuality

The title alludes to the virtuality of ego and its control power. The ego is
a virtual ego wielding virtual power; in actuality all power belongs ultimately
to "the mother of all machines" (from The Body Electric). The mother,
or ultimate origin of all cybernetic actions, is the Ground of Being, also
called the universal process, God, or the Tao (the great Tao that flows
everywhere). Egoic agents have merely virtual separateness from the
Matrix, but actual metaphysical oneness and unity with the Matrix. The ego is
only a virtual originator/creator of the mind's acts of will. From a deeper
perspective than the egoic perspective, the ego is created *along with* the
acts of will. The universe in a single action produces acts of personal will
*and* the illusion that those acts are originated by the ego as a substantial,
creating agent. The ego is ultimately a creature (created thing) rather than
creator; a puppet rather than puppetmaster.

Like a shipwrecked mariner adrift on an unknown sea [direct allusion to
important song "No One at the Bridge"; ego's power of steersmanship
is nullified during the "sea" of mystic state of dissociative
cognition] ["mariner" would be "cybernetic steersman" in
general]
Clinging to the wreckage of the lost ship Fantasy [power-wielding ego is
delusion, fantasy]
I'm a castaway, stranded in a desolate land [radical solipsism of mystic state;
desolate = devoid of one's own ego and all egos, as in "Twilight
Zone": "You wake up lost in an empty town, wondering why no one else
is around"]
I can see the footprints in the virtual sand [there is no ego, only the
projection or traces of ego; an impression of a being without the actual
existence of that being]

Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse 'round the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the Cyber Sea [this phrasing is a difficult achievement, to
bring together the real and the bogus usages of the prefix "cyber".
By recent conventions, "cyber" = "computer" and the
Internet; but by more ancient, more important traditions, "cyber"
means cybernetic steersmanship/governorship. The *main* meaning of cyber here
is not the obvious Internet reference, but rather, the steersmanship sea
covered definitively in No One at the Bridge.]

Astronauts in the weightlessness of pixellated space ["astronauts"
hearkens to the common "tripping = space travel" metaphor as in
Bowie's Space Oddity and Rush's Cygnus X-1] [weightlessness = being high, with
empty ego] [pixellated space = cognitive fragmentation and disintegration, of
the dissociative cognitive state; compare "bytes break into bits"]
Exchange graffiti with a disembodied race [grafitti: Led Zeppelin album title
"physical graffiti" refers to perceptual fragmentation/distortion]
[disembodied has a hidden meaning of high state of consciousness, in which the
mind's mental model of the body is suspended and one thus feels disembodied;
see "as a disembodied spirit" in Hemispheres.]
I can save the universe in a grain of sand [sand = silicon. "save the
universe" is a common feeling in the mystic state; saving the world from
delusion of egoic sovereign government]
I can hold the future in my virtual hand [time is suspended and frozen in the
mystic state; search "time" -- "laughed at by time"; time
conquers the delusion of egoic power -- there is no time for metaphysical
freedom] [the trick with "virtual hand" is that this does not refer
to the obvious telepresence technology and on-screen avatars, but rather, to
one's *actual* bodily hand: a direct allusion here to the hand of Unit One in
the very LSD-oriented song "The Body Electric": "A pulse of
dying power in a clenching plastic fist"] [so this line has two parts:
"hold the future" and "virtual hand" -- due to the
altered-state meaning of "virtual hand", the phrase "hold the
future" must be interpreted in the mystic way, as meaning
"freeze" the future; realize the future is frozen; realize that the
future is frozen; realize freedom is naught]

Let's dance tonight [search "dance" -- puppets, we dance on the
strings of the higher (or underlying) level of control -- thus, = "let's
trip tonight"]
To a virtual song
Press this key [this is definitely an allusion to "use the key, unlock the
door" and "the key, the end the answer" and "I learned to
turn the keys"] [press this key = ingest the key of LSD]
And you can play along [these songs are a game of mystic altered-state
meaning-exchange. If you want to play the game of exchanging meaning with Rush
lyrics, you must "press this key" and ingest LSD]

Let's fly tonight [let's trip tonight]
On our virtual wings [this spells doom for the ego; the fall of icarus. Kansas:
"I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high" (and then fall like
a zeppelin made of lead)]
Press this key
To see amazing things [these amazing things are not cool web sites (my unique
site about ego death would be an exception), but rather, about the amazing
things commonly discovered and experienced in the mystic altered state]

Like a pair of vagabonds who wave between two passing trains
Or the glimpse of a woman's smile through a window in the rain
I can smell her perfume, I can taste her lips
I can feel the voltage from her fingertips [compare "Bright antenna
bristle with the energy", "the body electric", "every nerve
aware"]

Net boy, net girl
Send your heartbeat round the world [compare the errratic heartbeat at the end
of Cygnus X-1, an important, meaningful, actual heartbeat well worth alluding
to]

From "Resist"

You can surrender [mystic
surrendering as you become consciously a helpless puppet totally defined and
controlled by the universal process]
Without a prayer
But never really pray
Pray without surrender [this is contradictory; affirming power of ego while
praying to be saved from being forced, in your helplessness, to do destructive
actions]